![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I am watching the weather with bated breath: could the long weekend actually have low humidity? Dew points in the 60s? Even a dew point of 60°F? Today the humidity adds another 12°F to the temperature for the heat index.
There is a ripening fig on the fig tree. I am so tickled. And so many little baby figs. I ponder https://www.giverecipe.com/unripe-fig-jam/ for this year, recognizing how busy i was at frost last year with the last of the tomatoes, the hibiscus. This master gardener page suggests thinning figs in Sonoma; doing so myself would make green fig preserves a reasonable thing to do early. Anyhow, a ripe fig! (And, as i am taking forever to post this -- it was very ripe whien i picked it tonight (Wednesday). i gently pulled it in half and ate it. Very mild -- i think the wet weather caused it to be softer and less flavorful than i would have expected. Still: yay! Yum!)
The runner beans took in a few places along the orchard fence: i hope that those thrive next year. I had imagined i would also have them in the garden, but it seems they never quite made it this cool year. Other pole beans are just now blossoming, so maybe i'll have some beans yet. The most exciting bean news is the wild kidney bean, Phaseolus polystachios, native and perennial, has taken hold at the north end of the area where the sunchokes grow, undeterred by any chemical warfare (allelopathic effects) of Helianthus tuberosus.
The rain on Monday night knocked some of the sunchokes down, but a large Argiope aurantia guards the stand. Wikipedia validates my wariness. Apparently the bite is like a bee sting. If i wasn't irrationally afraid of spiders, i think i would admire these. I am trying to desensitize, but but but.
The little corner of native perennials is rounded out with some sochan, Rudbeckia laciniata. It's lovely forest wildflower, that grows large and tall like the sunchokes and other aster flowers, but the greens in the spring are the edible crop. I've some plants that have started inside the orchard that i want to move out as part of the Fight The Stilt Grass project. Apparently its not favored by deer, so perhaps some day all the plants will be moved out of the protected part of the garden.
I'm imagining making a trellis from the two twin bed springs of out old bed. Last weekend i calculated the angle i would need for good sun (our north slope property makes me so very aware of the angle of the sun) and the height of the supports. I'll need to survey the slope and add the fall of the ground to the height. I'm not sure how ugly the propped up end of the trellis would be as one approaches the house: a wall of sochan would be pleasant for almost half the year, and i think they could cope with the shade of the trellis.
I remembered my mother's birthday with plenty of time to mail order a dress for her: hopefully the higher quality will be something she can enjoy. She did not commonly wear dresses, and so her new invalid wardrobe of easy to put on pull over knit dresses tends towards the inexpensive and flimsy. She knew quality, through her sharp years, always buying classic items as they went on deep sale. I believe part of her distaste for these clothes is not just that they are dresses but also that they are not quality. I hope this sweater dress is something Dad can easily dress her in and that she finds comfortable and attractive.
Meanwhile, confirmation that all the cat messes we need to clean up are not from our diabetic cat Edward but many are from young Marlowe. I suspect there's a significant amount of territoriality playing out. ARGH.
And Carrie has decided she wants to sleep with us. She pants, which i assume is anxiety, but about what? One night we had five of the six of us in the household in the bed, and the one not in it is small Marlowe.
There is a ripening fig on the fig tree. I am so tickled. And so many little baby figs. I ponder https://www.giverecipe.com/unripe-fig-jam/ for this year, recognizing how busy i was at frost last year with the last of the tomatoes, the hibiscus. This master gardener page suggests thinning figs in Sonoma; doing so myself would make green fig preserves a reasonable thing to do early. Anyhow, a ripe fig! (And, as i am taking forever to post this -- it was very ripe whien i picked it tonight (Wednesday). i gently pulled it in half and ate it. Very mild -- i think the wet weather caused it to be softer and less flavorful than i would have expected. Still: yay! Yum!)
The runner beans took in a few places along the orchard fence: i hope that those thrive next year. I had imagined i would also have them in the garden, but it seems they never quite made it this cool year. Other pole beans are just now blossoming, so maybe i'll have some beans yet. The most exciting bean news is the wild kidney bean, Phaseolus polystachios, native and perennial, has taken hold at the north end of the area where the sunchokes grow, undeterred by any chemical warfare (allelopathic effects) of Helianthus tuberosus.
The rain on Monday night knocked some of the sunchokes down, but a large Argiope aurantia guards the stand. Wikipedia validates my wariness. Apparently the bite is like a bee sting. If i wasn't irrationally afraid of spiders, i think i would admire these. I am trying to desensitize, but but but.
The little corner of native perennials is rounded out with some sochan, Rudbeckia laciniata. It's lovely forest wildflower, that grows large and tall like the sunchokes and other aster flowers, but the greens in the spring are the edible crop. I've some plants that have started inside the orchard that i want to move out as part of the Fight The Stilt Grass project. Apparently its not favored by deer, so perhaps some day all the plants will be moved out of the protected part of the garden.
I'm imagining making a trellis from the two twin bed springs of out old bed. Last weekend i calculated the angle i would need for good sun (our north slope property makes me so very aware of the angle of the sun) and the height of the supports. I'll need to survey the slope and add the fall of the ground to the height. I'm not sure how ugly the propped up end of the trellis would be as one approaches the house: a wall of sochan would be pleasant for almost half the year, and i think they could cope with the shade of the trellis.
I remembered my mother's birthday with plenty of time to mail order a dress for her: hopefully the higher quality will be something she can enjoy. She did not commonly wear dresses, and so her new invalid wardrobe of easy to put on pull over knit dresses tends towards the inexpensive and flimsy. She knew quality, through her sharp years, always buying classic items as they went on deep sale. I believe part of her distaste for these clothes is not just that they are dresses but also that they are not quality. I hope this sweater dress is something Dad can easily dress her in and that she finds comfortable and attractive.
Meanwhile, confirmation that all the cat messes we need to clean up are not from our diabetic cat Edward but many are from young Marlowe. I suspect there's a significant amount of territoriality playing out. ARGH.
And Carrie has decided she wants to sleep with us. She pants, which i assume is anxiety, but about what? One night we had five of the six of us in the household in the bed, and the one not in it is small Marlowe.
Tags:
So, i dunno what's wrong with me other than "2020, y'know." Another evening of the blues, guilt about the blues, bad feedback loop between Christine and i with the blues. I have a hard time believing the day at my parents triggered the response. It was a mildly pleasant time, work is low key and i am delighting in the quiet and writing data analysis scripts.
I may be
* frustrated that i don't have presentation quality reports yet
* dreading Meeting committee work because of cognitive misalignment
* guilty about seedlings i never planted and blocked on getting fall seedlings started
I still hate the humidity.
Edward's dosage of insulin has increased yet again, and the vet has allowed that there may be a more significant cause. But he has gained back some of the weight he lost, and the urination is under better control.
We are getting more comfortable with the smaller bed and learning how to set the softness. We are leaving the bed not quite flat but with a slight cradling shape -- head and foot slightly raised. I am thankful for the bed's flexibility and as i slowly recover from the morning back pain that bothered me terribly in ... June? July?... i wonder if in other lifetimes i would have bought a nice firm bed (which i like when i am awake) and have been stuck with back pain for much longer.
Dad had some advice on tightening the front door hinges to see if that would address the sudden sticking of the door in the top corner. It seems the humidity in previous years would have caused the same behavior if it was humidity related, and surely that earthquake was not enough to affect the house. So i'm hoping screw loosening.
Ah, loose screws.
I wish i could shake this malaise that hit me. I'll run the SAD lamp today and will come up with something to do outside - mow something. The stilt grass i cut in early July was too early, and there's plants back. But it can definitely be cut now to prevent seed set.
I harvested pop corn on Tuesday night. I found corn smut on one corn. I'm not brave enough to try huitlacoche.
I may be
* frustrated that i don't have presentation quality reports yet
* dreading Meeting committee work because of cognitive misalignment
* guilty about seedlings i never planted and blocked on getting fall seedlings started
I still hate the humidity.
Edward's dosage of insulin has increased yet again, and the vet has allowed that there may be a more significant cause. But he has gained back some of the weight he lost, and the urination is under better control.
We are getting more comfortable with the smaller bed and learning how to set the softness. We are leaving the bed not quite flat but with a slight cradling shape -- head and foot slightly raised. I am thankful for the bed's flexibility and as i slowly recover from the morning back pain that bothered me terribly in ... June? July?... i wonder if in other lifetimes i would have bought a nice firm bed (which i like when i am awake) and have been stuck with back pain for much longer.
Dad had some advice on tightening the front door hinges to see if that would address the sudden sticking of the door in the top corner. It seems the humidity in previous years would have caused the same behavior if it was humidity related, and surely that earthquake was not enough to affect the house. So i'm hoping screw loosening.
Ah, loose screws.
I wish i could shake this malaise that hit me. I'll run the SAD lamp today and will come up with something to do outside - mow something. The stilt grass i cut in early July was too early, and there's plants back. But it can definitely be cut now to prevent seed set.
I harvested pop corn on Tuesday night. I found corn smut on one corn. I'm not brave enough to try huitlacoche.
Tags:
This hurricane season is... interesting. Storm formation is rapid and early, with ten of the thirteen named storms setting a record for earliest formation. Put another way: we've had thirteen named storms (Laura and Marco formed yesterday) and the average number of named storms in the Atlantic basin for this date is 3.8.
They are short lived storms, and every time i get interested in a track it seems there's lots of atmospheric instability fighting the formation. The next two months are the peak of an average hurricane season: i'm watching.
Meanwhile it's just humid here, although we can see outside the windows again because the dew point is now down to 70°F. It's not hot, but i am whining so much about the weather. I don't really have a good excuse to do so.
Meanwhile i am avoiding thinking about Meeting. But i should. So here i go:
( thinking by writing )
--== ∞ ==--
In other topics: cats. ( problems continue )
In the garden, i find myself with enough sweet potato greens to have a few servings during the week. i had to decide between the mouse melons (Mexican gherkins) and roselle (hibiscus tea hibiscus). The mouse mellons just didn't seem as productive as they were earlier, so i hacked the vine out of the roselle and cut the roselle back. It's greens are sour and yummy as well.
The Malabar spinach has finally taken off, and i've spent some time reading about how it can be used. It has already reseeded itself, and i take it i can expect more seedlings next year. I think i'll try to keep some seed. It has a similar taste to spinach, chard, and purslane, an "earthy" note for lack of a better term. It's not as attractive to me as brassica bitterness. That's for lunch today. The berries are interesting; apparently edible, little taste, incredible color. Chatter on line about anthrocyanins and being "likely good for you." Somewhere else i read one component is similar to a beet component (not here, but that's close enough). It's an interesting thought as a food dye, much like using beets to tint sauerkraut. I wonder if dehydrating the berries yields a colorant that can be used in the winter.
I wish i was having better luck with beets.
Critter watch has included clouds of Eastern tiger swallowtail around the bearsfoot (Smallanthus uvedalius). The hurricane rains beat down many of the taller (ten foot) plants: i cut back a good deal but there are still enough flowers for the swallowtails. Other butterflies (skippers, probably whirlabout (Polites vibex), primarily) were there too.
They are short lived storms, and every time i get interested in a track it seems there's lots of atmospheric instability fighting the formation. The next two months are the peak of an average hurricane season: i'm watching.
Meanwhile it's just humid here, although we can see outside the windows again because the dew point is now down to 70°F. It's not hot, but i am whining so much about the weather. I don't really have a good excuse to do so.
Meanwhile i am avoiding thinking about Meeting. But i should. So here i go:
( thinking by writing )
--== ∞ ==--
In other topics: cats. ( problems continue )
In the garden, i find myself with enough sweet potato greens to have a few servings during the week. i had to decide between the mouse melons (Mexican gherkins) and roselle (hibiscus tea hibiscus). The mouse mellons just didn't seem as productive as they were earlier, so i hacked the vine out of the roselle and cut the roselle back. It's greens are sour and yummy as well.
The Malabar spinach has finally taken off, and i've spent some time reading about how it can be used. It has already reseeded itself, and i take it i can expect more seedlings next year. I think i'll try to keep some seed. It has a similar taste to spinach, chard, and purslane, an "earthy" note for lack of a better term. It's not as attractive to me as brassica bitterness. That's for lunch today. The berries are interesting; apparently edible, little taste, incredible color. Chatter on line about anthrocyanins and being "likely good for you." Somewhere else i read one component is similar to a beet component (not here, but that's close enough). It's an interesting thought as a food dye, much like using beets to tint sauerkraut. I wonder if dehydrating the berries yields a colorant that can be used in the winter.
I wish i was having better luck with beets.
Critter watch has included clouds of Eastern tiger swallowtail around the bearsfoot (Smallanthus uvedalius). The hurricane rains beat down many of the taller (ten foot) plants: i cut back a good deal but there are still enough flowers for the swallowtails. Other butterflies (skippers, probably whirlabout (Polites vibex), primarily) were there too.
Tags:
Life continues in the way of things going remarkably well but the weight of life is heavy. My body chemistry was out of whack earlier in the week leading to some low lows, which are now fuzzy in my memory.
( Aging parents )
Mom watched all of season 3 of Downton Abbey (or it auto-played when Dad turned off the TV but the little Apple TV box continued to churn away?). So now i'm curious-ish about what happened between the beginning of season 3 (Mary marries Matthew; Bates is in prison) and the beginning od season 4. I watched snippets of the show when Christine was watching years ago, but have never seen it all the way through.
I'm sad there seems to be an anthracnose infecting my tomatoes, and worry about how well i can rotate Solanaceae in my small plot. The cages Dad gave me for tomatoes should allow adequate protection from deer while the plants are small, so i think i have a plan for where i could move them. I don't think i can eradicate potatoes from the plot that easily, and the ground cherries are certainly contributing to the seed bank.
Meanwhile, i really want to get my popcorn off the stalks because of worms and mildew but I'm not seeing good guidance about early picking.
I think goldfinches fledged into the orchard earlier this week. At lunch when i was taking (athranose infected) compost out i saw a poorly feathered young bird -- but wings seemed fully feathered out -- on an orchard fence wire. I moved it to the log fence at the meadow border, and hoped it would be well. After work, Marlowe and Carrie had a dead baby bird, and the gold flash and constant calls of adult goldfinches were unmistakable in the orchard. I looked for any other fledglings to remove and mourned our household's impact. Marlowe may have climbed up and found a nest in the large crepe myrtle that is in the orchard. I hope the birds were fledging though and some made the mistake of entering the arena of fenced predators.
The big Black-and-Yellow Argiope spiders (writing spiders, garden spiders) are beginning to spin their large scale webs. Not up to human scale yet: i've only seen them fill three foot spans so far. Gah, i shudder. I do not delight in the autumn when the spiders' webs cross twenty and thirty foot spans. I can cope when they are above my height, but soon it will be time to walk everywhere waving a stick in front of me.
I think we are coping with the many litter boxes and puppy pads around the house. There is some predictability now, at least, with feline indiscretions, but it's still a drain.
( Aging parents )
Mom watched all of season 3 of Downton Abbey (or it auto-played when Dad turned off the TV but the little Apple TV box continued to churn away?). So now i'm curious-ish about what happened between the beginning of season 3 (Mary marries Matthew; Bates is in prison) and the beginning od season 4. I watched snippets of the show when Christine was watching years ago, but have never seen it all the way through.
I'm sad there seems to be an anthracnose infecting my tomatoes, and worry about how well i can rotate Solanaceae in my small plot. The cages Dad gave me for tomatoes should allow adequate protection from deer while the plants are small, so i think i have a plan for where i could move them. I don't think i can eradicate potatoes from the plot that easily, and the ground cherries are certainly contributing to the seed bank.
Meanwhile, i really want to get my popcorn off the stalks because of worms and mildew but I'm not seeing good guidance about early picking.
I think goldfinches fledged into the orchard earlier this week. At lunch when i was taking (athranose infected) compost out i saw a poorly feathered young bird -- but wings seemed fully feathered out -- on an orchard fence wire. I moved it to the log fence at the meadow border, and hoped it would be well. After work, Marlowe and Carrie had a dead baby bird, and the gold flash and constant calls of adult goldfinches were unmistakable in the orchard. I looked for any other fledglings to remove and mourned our household's impact. Marlowe may have climbed up and found a nest in the large crepe myrtle that is in the orchard. I hope the birds were fledging though and some made the mistake of entering the arena of fenced predators.
The big Black-and-Yellow Argiope spiders (writing spiders, garden spiders) are beginning to spin their large scale webs. Not up to human scale yet: i've only seen them fill three foot spans so far. Gah, i shudder. I do not delight in the autumn when the spiders' webs cross twenty and thirty foot spans. I can cope when they are above my height, but soon it will be time to walk everywhere waving a stick in front of me.
I think we are coping with the many litter boxes and puppy pads around the house. There is some predictability now, at least, with feline indiscretions, but it's still a drain.
Tags:
So, doodles just to stretch some of my many cramped metaphorical and real muscles. I'm pleased, although i don't know that i want to stay with the sketch. I don't know if i will ever get past dabbing the virtual paint on with the brush tool and then smearing it into shape as if it were finger painting. It's fine for the doodles but i don't think it's that good for any graphic design work (Spoonflower fabrics).
I took a half day Friday when the tree guy showed up and topped the dead pine near the powerline. It will allow the tulip poplar to continue to grow, and woodpeckers to continue to work on the tree. Duke power wouldn't leave a snag nor would they work around trees (but instead cut any other trees that were in the way, including a large old redbud and a cherry). I am still irritated a year and a half later. He'll come back and get some sweetgums down that are crowding the back porch, and agrees the large cherry is no threat to the house. I was exhausted from the couple hours i spent out in the dreadful humidity.
In Clerk of Meeting news, i am struggling with the fact that the onsite worship folks decided to change the rain plans from what is minuted. No harm was done, in that i don't think anyone showed up and was surprised by the change, and the people who are particularly concerned probably stayed home due to weather. But it just distressed me. If no one had recognized the existing decision, it would be one thing, but to recognize the decision and then have a few people by email change their mind....
So close to walking away.
The felines continue to have incidents: I'm pretty sure both Marlowe and Edward are involved and wonder if this is partly about Marlowe ambushing her seniors. We are also considering moving the bespoke litter box to a new location and see if that helps.
Software developer stuff: I've been preoccupied with reactivating newbie skills of git (a way that software engineers keep versions of code, store them in a external site providing backup, and collaborate on changes) and markdown (yet another text markup language -- not to be confused with YAML which stands for Yet Another Markup Language). And i'm learning to use Visual Studio Code as an editor. Some of this learning is because my old skills have become completely obsolete: i wasn't able to get the editor i have used for decades, emacs, to install on the latest version of the Mac operating system. Visual Studio Code, a free Microsoft product, has delighted me as a replacement.
I'd spent some time in January making use of "Jupyter Notebooks," a easy way to use python code to analyze data and report on it. I've poked a little at the best practices for storing the notebooks in a git repository: nothing has jumped out as an answer. I'll just shove them in, i guess. I do see that there's a metastructure, JupyterLab, that binds up multiple notebooks.
I spent all weekend writing a processing program that will pull files in, split them into months, and create "cleaned" by the month files, with the nice addition of keeping track of which files have been processed by which version of the script.
I took a half day Friday when the tree guy showed up and topped the dead pine near the powerline. It will allow the tulip poplar to continue to grow, and woodpeckers to continue to work on the tree. Duke power wouldn't leave a snag nor would they work around trees (but instead cut any other trees that were in the way, including a large old redbud and a cherry). I am still irritated a year and a half later. He'll come back and get some sweetgums down that are crowding the back porch, and agrees the large cherry is no threat to the house. I was exhausted from the couple hours i spent out in the dreadful humidity.
In Clerk of Meeting news, i am struggling with the fact that the onsite worship folks decided to change the rain plans from what is minuted. No harm was done, in that i don't think anyone showed up and was surprised by the change, and the people who are particularly concerned probably stayed home due to weather. But it just distressed me. If no one had recognized the existing decision, it would be one thing, but to recognize the decision and then have a few people by email change their mind....
So close to walking away.
The felines continue to have incidents: I'm pretty sure both Marlowe and Edward are involved and wonder if this is partly about Marlowe ambushing her seniors. We are also considering moving the bespoke litter box to a new location and see if that helps.
Software developer stuff: I've been preoccupied with reactivating newbie skills of git (a way that software engineers keep versions of code, store them in a external site providing backup, and collaborate on changes) and markdown (yet another text markup language -- not to be confused with YAML which stands for Yet Another Markup Language). And i'm learning to use Visual Studio Code as an editor. Some of this learning is because my old skills have become completely obsolete: i wasn't able to get the editor i have used for decades, emacs, to install on the latest version of the Mac operating system. Visual Studio Code, a free Microsoft product, has delighted me as a replacement.
I'd spent some time in January making use of "Jupyter Notebooks," a easy way to use python code to analyze data and report on it. I've poked a little at the best practices for storing the notebooks in a git repository: nothing has jumped out as an answer. I'll just shove them in, i guess. I do see that there's a metastructure, JupyterLab, that binds up multiple notebooks.
I spent all weekend writing a processing program that will pull files in, split them into months, and create "cleaned" by the month files, with the nice addition of keeping track of which files have been processed by which version of the script.
Tags:
Dad is back from Tampa and Mom is reunited with him as of 6:46 pm last night. I spent a little time at my sister's home with Mom and younger nibling E while L conveyed rising freshman nibling W to Siler City to pick up his school materials. Nibling W will be attending Chatham School of Science & Engineering and will graduate high school with a two year degree.
Hurricane Isiais left us with 3.42" of rain. That might be the highest i've ever measured. I went out yesterday morning to check and startled three deer into departure from under the black walnut.
Last night's sky was clear with some high clouds. I couldn't see the moon -- too thick growth between me and twenty degrees above the horizon. Two planes flew over but no observed satellites. A firefly still danced high in the trees.
Despite the number of litter boxes out and some of them being new, i've had to clean up after the cats twice. Once was in front of the box by the garage door. I suspect Marlowe there. Christine was in the watercloset with the door closed (like a civilized person) when Edward went into the bathroom this morning. I called to her to open, but Edward observed the closed door and did his wet business against the sink cabinet. Well, can't blame Marlowe for everything. He also seemed to want to avoid his insulin shot this morning. I hope i am being gentle enough.
Today is The Vacation Dinner. I have a fresh Black Umbrian Summer Truffle from Caputo's. They note, regarding the mold growing on it:
Another site says, "All truffles hate dampness, and will develop mold if moisture is present. If mold develops, simply shave the affected area." Various web sites advise different things for preparing Tuber aestivum aka "tartufo nero estivo," but i am going to go with the advice to gently warm it in a butter sauce.
We also have a Francis Coppola 2013 Claret Diamond Collection Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon (California) (which probably sounds more fancy than it is). I've bought cheeses that are supposed to go well with cabs, and the truffle partly inspired by advice for what should vegetarians eat with bold red wines. We bought the wine just before moving to here, and it's been sitting on the counter waiting for an appropriate time. Hopefully this is a good match. The cheeses are
and Christine's choice
I've lined up a walk with Carrie and my sister L for tomorrow morning.
Hurricane Isiais left us with 3.42" of rain. That might be the highest i've ever measured. I went out yesterday morning to check and startled three deer into departure from under the black walnut.
Last night's sky was clear with some high clouds. I couldn't see the moon -- too thick growth between me and twenty degrees above the horizon. Two planes flew over but no observed satellites. A firefly still danced high in the trees.
Despite the number of litter boxes out and some of them being new, i've had to clean up after the cats twice. Once was in front of the box by the garage door. I suspect Marlowe there. Christine was in the watercloset with the door closed (like a civilized person) when Edward went into the bathroom this morning. I called to her to open, but Edward observed the closed door and did his wet business against the sink cabinet. Well, can't blame Marlowe for everything. He also seemed to want to avoid his insulin shot this morning. I hope i am being gentle enough.
Today is The Vacation Dinner. I have a fresh Black Umbrian Summer Truffle from Caputo's. They note, regarding the mold growing on it:
The white film on the truffle is natural, healthy mold that is found on most of the truffles we carry. The amount found on truffles ranges, but after reviewing the photograph you provided, it appears that the amount on the one you received is minor.
The mold can be removed by cleaning the truffle and will be safe to consume after. You can use a soft brush (a new toothbrush it typically recommended if available) to clean it, or a damp cold paper towel to brush it off. As long as the mold is removed and the truffle is firm, there will be no issues with consuming it. However, if the truffle is soft or damaged in any other way, please let us know and we'll be happy to look into what more we can do.
Another site says, "All truffles hate dampness, and will develop mold if moisture is present. If mold develops, simply shave the affected area." Various web sites advise different things for preparing Tuber aestivum aka "tartufo nero estivo," but i am going to go with the advice to gently warm it in a butter sauce.
We also have a Francis Coppola 2013 Claret Diamond Collection Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon (California) (which probably sounds more fancy than it is). I've bought cheeses that are supposed to go well with cabs, and the truffle partly inspired by advice for what should vegetarians eat with bold red wines. We bought the wine just before moving to here, and it's been sitting on the counter waiting for an appropriate time. Hopefully this is a good match. The cheeses are
Caputo's Cheese Cave Grotte Caputo: imagine a hybrid of piquant Asiago and a sweet, nutty 4 year old Gouda. To accomplish this marriage of Southern and Northern Europe cheese, we age it anaerobically in Caputo's Cheese Caves for 16 months. After about 12 months, the Asiago starter cultures die off, and more Gouda-like cultures take over.
and Christine's choice
Beehive Cheese Company's award-winning Barely Buzzed is a bold cheddar flavored with lavender and espresso. Made lovingly in Utah from pasteurized cow's milk, Barely Buzzed is the cheese that put Beehive Cheese and Utah cheddars on the map. The deep purple rind makes this a striking addition to your cheese plate.
I've lined up a walk with Carrie and my sister L for tomorrow morning.
Tags:
I search morning and evening for Grandmámá's husband to see if i can turn up an obituary. Not sure i will find one. One of his daughters is going to Tampa to start dealing with his affairs: happy news. I should talk to my sister about beginning obituaries for our parents and Grandmámá -- not that i expect to need one for my father any time soon.
I wrote a friend:
Isaias brought much rain, but whatever wind it brought through the night, the general vicinity doesn't seem to have particularly large power outages. The Wilmington area, that's been getting pounded these past few years of storms, may have been significantly affected: i'm not fussing with the state paper's paywall-or-account barrier this morning. The NYTimes doesn't have any current coverage.
More litterboxes but someone is still relieving themselves on the floor by the garage door. I fear we have some confluence of issues with both diabetic Edward AND little wild Marlowe.
I wrote a friend:
I suppose i should work on finding forgiveness for her husband, but his pride, obstinacy, lack of care led to my grandmother nearly starving herself to death while in pain from broken ribs and a cracked coccyx. I suppose i can work on being thankful that he refused for them move into a retirement tower where they could have care and be close to others. It's just been hard to imagine my social butterfly of a grandmother alone with him and our cousin (who has been caring for her) in their home these years and years.
Isaias brought much rain, but whatever wind it brought through the night, the general vicinity doesn't seem to have particularly large power outages. The Wilmington area, that's been getting pounded these past few years of storms, may have been significantly affected: i'm not fussing with the state paper's paywall-or-account barrier this morning. The NYTimes doesn't have any current coverage.
More litterboxes but someone is still relieving themselves on the floor by the garage door. I fear we have some confluence of issues with both diabetic Edward AND little wild Marlowe.
Last night: a firefly still visible in the trees. Sky hazy, stars dim -- large moon low in the trees, illuminating the night sky.
Euphemism free content:
( Read more... )
Euphemism free content:
( Read more... )
Tags:
Realizations from therapy Tuesday included that i haven't been to Mom & Dad's place since March, thus seeing the state of things - housekeeping and Mom, as well as Dad's frailty - was a shock. On Monday, i arrived to find the kitchen spotless and the clutter all put up, with laundry running and Mom's dresses drying in a doorway. Dad's energy had returned and he was using his morning burst of moxie to get things done. That was good to see.
I had taken Friday off, partly to plan our vacation, but ended up working Friday instead. (No email, yay!) With Sunday also diverting me from establishing intentionality, i'm a little frustrated. There are somethings -- like reviving my rye bread baking, that i suspect i need lead time (although i see i can buy a whole POUND of yeast on Amazon prime, so maybe i have time Saturday to sort out details - -Hans is probably dead in the back of the fridge accompanied by some aquafaba which is probably now alive).
Yesterday, as vacation planning, i found a gourmet food vendor online and ordered a truffle, lovely cheeses, olives, canned scallops, and Toschi Amarena Cherries.
--== ∞ ==--
Evening brings gloom and overwhelm and sense of guilt for not having the gumption to get up and go. There's some depression at the edge right now and lack of exercise and yard work are part of the problem.Then i face the humidity and i don't wanna. I need to get to where i can go out immediately after work and then have time to clean up and recover from the mugginess.
Edward is diagnosed with diabetes, and i flash to thinking of GreyBeard's death (2008) from complications from diabetes. I reread some of my journal from that time. We knew and we were preparing for it. It was before Christine was invaded by elephants.
I skimmed through a book Tuesday night, "The Oldest Living Things in the World," a fascinating meditative art project: photographs of some of the oldest entities. Deep time. The New York Times has had stores this week related to some of her topics. The author, Rachel Sussman, writes about actinobacteria in the permafrost, four to six hundred thousand years old, not dormant but slowly persisting, existing. The Times writes of a core being pulled from the sediments beneath the South Pacific Gyre: 200,000 feet below the water's surface, 250 feet below the floor of the ocean, in sediments from 101.5 million years ago. The microbes from this core are happily feeding away. And there's an article reporting the scientific debate on the immortality of long lived trees: no reference is made to the 43,600 year old King's Holly of Tasmania in this discussion. Perhaps the fragmentary persistence is so alien to our mammal body plan scientists can't quite count this as immortality -- and then there are some political and botanical challenges with that King's Holly (Lomatia tasmanica). The site, from Sussman's book, sounds like it's somewhat contested with extractive industry interested in its site.
I had taken Friday off, partly to plan our vacation, but ended up working Friday instead. (No email, yay!) With Sunday also diverting me from establishing intentionality, i'm a little frustrated. There are somethings -- like reviving my rye bread baking, that i suspect i need lead time (although i see i can buy a whole POUND of yeast on Amazon prime, so maybe i have time Saturday to sort out details - -Hans is probably dead in the back of the fridge accompanied by some aquafaba which is probably now alive).
Yesterday, as vacation planning, i found a gourmet food vendor online and ordered a truffle, lovely cheeses, olives, canned scallops, and Toschi Amarena Cherries.
--== ∞ ==--
Evening brings gloom and overwhelm and sense of guilt for not having the gumption to get up and go. There's some depression at the edge right now and lack of exercise and yard work are part of the problem.Then i face the humidity and i don't wanna. I need to get to where i can go out immediately after work and then have time to clean up and recover from the mugginess.
Edward is diagnosed with diabetes, and i flash to thinking of GreyBeard's death (2008) from complications from diabetes. I reread some of my journal from that time. We knew and we were preparing for it. It was before Christine was invaded by elephants.
I skimmed through a book Tuesday night, "The Oldest Living Things in the World," a fascinating meditative art project: photographs of some of the oldest entities. Deep time. The New York Times has had stores this week related to some of her topics. The author, Rachel Sussman, writes about actinobacteria in the permafrost, four to six hundred thousand years old, not dormant but slowly persisting, existing. The Times writes of a core being pulled from the sediments beneath the South Pacific Gyre: 200,000 feet below the water's surface, 250 feet below the floor of the ocean, in sediments from 101.5 million years ago. The microbes from this core are happily feeding away. And there's an article reporting the scientific debate on the immortality of long lived trees: no reference is made to the 43,600 year old King's Holly of Tasmania in this discussion. Perhaps the fragmentary persistence is so alien to our mammal body plan scientists can't quite count this as immortality -- and then there are some political and botanical challenges with that King's Holly (Lomatia tasmanica). The site, from Sussman's book, sounds like it's somewhat contested with extractive industry interested in its site.
Tags:
I made the mistake of watching some videos of people using broadforks and chopping hoes in "clay." HA! You call that clay? It reminds me of how i want to do a photo series of a chunk of clay, maybe a cubic foot of the brick red soil, set on a log pedestal in the weather, and photograph the sun and rain wearing it way. I would expect one nice piece of quartz from a chunk, milky whiteness to be revealed after the rain washes the volcanic soil away. I amuse myself thinking about how that specific rock has never been seen above ground before (perhaps a miner bee "saw" it while it was below ground).
I have come to believe the area i picked for my garden was particularly bad in that what loam there was was scraped off in grading to provide more soil around the house. It is getting better with time; i can see the difference.
Sunday night i used the wheeled string trimmer, with its heavy duty line at the lowest setting, and obliterated a good deal of growth in driveway island, as well as a good deal of the stilt grass growing in the woods around the black walnuts. So far the plans for the island haven't really worked. Scattering wildflower seed ended up with high stilt grass. The squash would have carpeted and shaded the area but the deer and rabbits loved the stuff. I think i'm going to need to be very intentional about planting. I really don't want turf, grass that needs mowing, which is the "easy" solution. My next plan is to use pine chippings to cover as much of the area, and pine logs to outline it. As i identify plants that seem deer resistant and attractive or productive, plant those by amending the direct location of the plant's hole. Or just turn the whole thing into a giant onion parch.
Deer and rabbits abound. During my Tuesday morning meetings a rabbit was grazing on the other side of the window, staying in place for a long time. I suppose with the driveway island mostly cleared, there was better cover close to the house -- the big patch of bearsfoot at the base of the tulip poplar.
This morning two does were grazing close to the house just outside the fence. When i open the blinds on the French doors they studied the movement. I cracked open the door and Marlow slipped out. They studied each other and i let Luigi out. His stiff joints give an impression of him stomping. Stomp stomp stomp to the edge of the deck. The deer give him their full attention, and one stamps her hoof. He goes down the stairs and advances toward them. I hear the whistling snorts, and there's some retreat away from the house and into the woods -- but it's not complete and the deer still study Luigi and snort. They're distracted from me as i complete my morning chore of opening the deck door, unlatching at top and bottom so the cats can now come and go via the door in the office window that looks into the porch. I slip back inside and the deer are finally out of my sight as i carry Edward to the door to urge him, too, out for a morning constitutional. With age his eyes seem to be failing and he seems spooked by the great contrast of morning gloaming to the dark room.
Mom and Dad stopped by yesterday evening and i gave them ground cherries and mouse melons (aka Mexican gherkins). Dad was suspicious, but ate the ground cherry and was pleasantly surprised.
In therapy we talked about my lack of focus, how that's likely related to the lack of sleep and the lower back pain that develops while i am sleeping. I am certain it's related to some combination of the new bed (initially suing it much firmer than i had been sleeping on), the smaller bed (and all the negotiations of the cats for new locations), the changed position of the bed (even though i'm just as close to the air vent as before, i think i'm in the circulation path and thus am colder in the evenings), sleeping on the opposite side of the bed. It's all DIFFERENT.
In the evening we completed more steps in transferring my domains to AWS as the registrar and Christine's collection that she manages. We'd been surprise by a new ICANN requirement that blocks transfer if you change any details about the registrant. Apparently, one can opt out of this block, but my current domain registrar (who does not impress me at all) didn't make that clear until after the fact. Fortunately the customer support was willing to make it happen -- if i sent them my username and password (and IP address). I was a little boggled at the request, but after a cost risk analysis, i used https://onetimesecret.com/ to send them the username and password. The support team reports the transfer opt-out is complete, so on to the next step.
We've also gotten the forms filled out and printed to request absentee ballots for November. Whee!
I have come to believe the area i picked for my garden was particularly bad in that what loam there was was scraped off in grading to provide more soil around the house. It is getting better with time; i can see the difference.
Sunday night i used the wheeled string trimmer, with its heavy duty line at the lowest setting, and obliterated a good deal of growth in driveway island, as well as a good deal of the stilt grass growing in the woods around the black walnuts. So far the plans for the island haven't really worked. Scattering wildflower seed ended up with high stilt grass. The squash would have carpeted and shaded the area but the deer and rabbits loved the stuff. I think i'm going to need to be very intentional about planting. I really don't want turf, grass that needs mowing, which is the "easy" solution. My next plan is to use pine chippings to cover as much of the area, and pine logs to outline it. As i identify plants that seem deer resistant and attractive or productive, plant those by amending the direct location of the plant's hole. Or just turn the whole thing into a giant onion parch.
Deer and rabbits abound. During my Tuesday morning meetings a rabbit was grazing on the other side of the window, staying in place for a long time. I suppose with the driveway island mostly cleared, there was better cover close to the house -- the big patch of bearsfoot at the base of the tulip poplar.
This morning two does were grazing close to the house just outside the fence. When i open the blinds on the French doors they studied the movement. I cracked open the door and Marlow slipped out. They studied each other and i let Luigi out. His stiff joints give an impression of him stomping. Stomp stomp stomp to the edge of the deck. The deer give him their full attention, and one stamps her hoof. He goes down the stairs and advances toward them. I hear the whistling snorts, and there's some retreat away from the house and into the woods -- but it's not complete and the deer still study Luigi and snort. They're distracted from me as i complete my morning chore of opening the deck door, unlatching at top and bottom so the cats can now come and go via the door in the office window that looks into the porch. I slip back inside and the deer are finally out of my sight as i carry Edward to the door to urge him, too, out for a morning constitutional. With age his eyes seem to be failing and he seems spooked by the great contrast of morning gloaming to the dark room.
Mom and Dad stopped by yesterday evening and i gave them ground cherries and mouse melons (aka Mexican gherkins). Dad was suspicious, but ate the ground cherry and was pleasantly surprised.
In therapy we talked about my lack of focus, how that's likely related to the lack of sleep and the lower back pain that develops while i am sleeping. I am certain it's related to some combination of the new bed (initially suing it much firmer than i had been sleeping on), the smaller bed (and all the negotiations of the cats for new locations), the changed position of the bed (even though i'm just as close to the air vent as before, i think i'm in the circulation path and thus am colder in the evenings), sleeping on the opposite side of the bed. It's all DIFFERENT.
In the evening we completed more steps in transferring my domains to AWS as the registrar and Christine's collection that she manages. We'd been surprise by a new ICANN requirement that blocks transfer if you change any details about the registrant. Apparently, one can opt out of this block, but my current domain registrar (who does not impress me at all) didn't make that clear until after the fact. Fortunately the customer support was willing to make it happen -- if i sent them my username and password (and IP address). I was a little boggled at the request, but after a cost risk analysis, i used https://onetimesecret.com/ to send them the username and password. The support team reports the transfer opt-out is complete, so on to the next step.
We've also gotten the forms filled out and printed to request absentee ballots for November. Whee!
Tags:
It's been hard to get an entry posted -- lots going on and yet little going on. I sorted ancient USB cables as part of my holiday vacation. I did get rid of quite a pile, retaining a few including a USB mini B to USB mini A cable (what that was for i have no idea, but if i ever need it, i still have it.) And now i have a clue as to the various fast charging standards and have culled wall power adapters that are low powered from the collection.
I'm also designing a shed, and I'm collaborating with someone who will cut down two large pines from right next to the power pole (as well as another large pine that has died from a beetle infestation). The preemptive culling of those two pines will allow us to mill the wood from the trees as the supporting members for the shed. It sounds like cutting siding from the trees is much more expensive than buying the siding, while the benefit of getting nice 4x4 or 6x6 from your own trees is quite cost effective. I've priced out roofing -- i'll use metal on the open south side and translucent or clear plastic on the walled north side. That will allow the back of the shed to have daylight. I have decided to go with a concrete footing rather than using a bed of locally sourced decomposed granite called "Chapel Hill grit." The grit is a bit more expensive than i assumed.
I am grateful for how the previous owners grew gladiola. I would not have grown them on my own, particularly with the advice one lift them for over winter. But here were gladiola clearly left to their own devices (and the deer). Fenced away from the herbivores, the flowers are a riot. I have plenty more to rescue once digging seems like a good idea. [See complaint 1.]
I am thankful for my sister taking on some of my mom's role of instigating family gatherings. We met on the patio at my parents' place for blueberry scones (baked by my sister) and donuts (baked by my niece E) on Saturday morning. Other than the distance at which we sat from one another, it was just what i would have loved on a pandemic-less Fourth of July. [See rumination 1.]
I am thankful for Christine's idea of watching movies outside with family as a safer way to socialize. We sprang for a projector and screen which will arrive soon. [See rumination 2.]
I am so happy that Dad's second surgery last Wednesday turned into merely a esophageal scoping. First, the health condition may merely be acute and not chronic, and all the risk of surgery went away. For me, it meant the wait in the parking lot was fairly short. [See complaint 4.]
( ruminations )
( complaints )
I'm also designing a shed, and I'm collaborating with someone who will cut down two large pines from right next to the power pole (as well as another large pine that has died from a beetle infestation). The preemptive culling of those two pines will allow us to mill the wood from the trees as the supporting members for the shed. It sounds like cutting siding from the trees is much more expensive than buying the siding, while the benefit of getting nice 4x4 or 6x6 from your own trees is quite cost effective. I've priced out roofing -- i'll use metal on the open south side and translucent or clear plastic on the walled north side. That will allow the back of the shed to have daylight. I have decided to go with a concrete footing rather than using a bed of locally sourced decomposed granite called "Chapel Hill grit." The grit is a bit more expensive than i assumed.
I am grateful for how the previous owners grew gladiola. I would not have grown them on my own, particularly with the advice one lift them for over winter. But here were gladiola clearly left to their own devices (and the deer). Fenced away from the herbivores, the flowers are a riot. I have plenty more to rescue once digging seems like a good idea. [See complaint 1.]
I am thankful for my sister taking on some of my mom's role of instigating family gatherings. We met on the patio at my parents' place for blueberry scones (baked by my sister) and donuts (baked by my niece E) on Saturday morning. Other than the distance at which we sat from one another, it was just what i would have loved on a pandemic-less Fourth of July. [See rumination 1.]
I am thankful for Christine's idea of watching movies outside with family as a safer way to socialize. We sprang for a projector and screen which will arrive soon. [See rumination 2.]
I am so happy that Dad's second surgery last Wednesday turned into merely a esophageal scoping. First, the health condition may merely be acute and not chronic, and all the risk of surgery went away. For me, it meant the wait in the parking lot was fairly short. [See complaint 4.]
( ruminations )
( complaints )
Well, that previous post about facebook wasn't meant to be public.
The weekend has passed ... oddly. I feel pretty out of joint with time. Part of it, i am sure is the long daylight. The news.
I feel very out of joint.
I realize i haven't gone through action ticklers since mid April.
--== ∞ ==--
Happy things:
*SIBS* Zoom visit with my sister and brother. At this time of year, Singapore is 12 hours ahead of North Carolina. We can meet when it is Saturday night for my sister and i and Sunday morning, before most of my brother's family wakes, for my brother. We had technical challenges but a good visit. I've bought a year's subscription to Zoom as a way to ensure we can have long meetings. And then we ended up using facetime. >_<
*MINT* I adventured with mint preservation today. Spearmint & peppermint in vodka to extract. Spearmint in a salt brine to ferment. Peppermint "massaged" with salt and just a little water for a "dry" ferment. (I've added brine from the spearmint just to make sure everything is oxygen free.) I've no idea what fermented mint will be like. I dehydrated spearmint, peppermint, and lemon balm for an hour -- that might have been too long, but the tea i made from the dried spearmint seems just fine. I was very careful to take the leading tips for the dehydrator, on the theory that -- like with tea -- that was the most intense part of the plant. The larger leaves on the rest of the stems went into the ferment and alcohol. Maybe next time i will make simple syrup.
Some mint went in with yogurt and i took my crop of peas,* cooked by pouring boiling water over them, and spooned them into a divot in the mint yogurt. I don't think i made the mint yogurt right. Probably missing the cucumber. And salt.
* Where "crop" is maybe a quarter cup after being shelled? I would need to plant much much more to get enough to have a real meal for two, i swear. Not sure why the Austrian peas did so well and the English peas, not so much.
--== ∞ ==--
*CATS* Worry about Luigi, one of our older cats, who doesn't do a good job grooming, who has a fine soft undercoat that mats, who screams when i brush his haunches and snaps at us. Every now and then i see tufts of loose hair and sometimes i can just pull them free without him noticing, but generally i get a yelp-y complaint. I wish i knew what discomfort he was feeling. Last night we got some of his mats around his neck where the collar hides them from my fingers. I should note we usually get the mats before they are bad, but we occasionally cut some loose. He doesn't look unkempt, but my fingers easily feel the lumps of more-fur-than-fits.
*HMPH* I observed cardinals swooping to and from the blackberry bushes. And of course the two just black but not quite ripe berries were gone. This leads me to believe i had seen an almost black berry that was liberated. I am hoping a whole bunch of berries comes ripe all at once and i can get some. Also, Carrie and Marlowe *NOW* that i need you to be chasing birds....? Meanwhile the new canes are rising up like monsters from the root crowns. Two of the four bushes are double-crop bearing bushes (Prime-Ark Traveler), and clearly are later than the other bushes for the first crop as their berries are big glistening green jewels. The Arapaho bushes are ruby red, leading me to wonder how attractive a photo of a male cardinal would be with them. Clash or compliment?
Meanwhile the blueberries are covered in fruit, although the plants don't evince the thriving that the blackberries do. I planted borage between them, and the blue star blossoms are blooming, but the plants are rather floppy and unattractive.
We've dried out from the days and days of rain. I watered the garden last night. So far the happiest summer plants are the winter squash i planted in the driveway island and covered with arches of wire fencing. They're now racing out from their protected cage. Deer prune the tender ends, but i think that's just going to force the vines to branch. I'm hopeful the location will be better suited to keep the powdery mildew at bay. I've berries on the ground cherries, sweet tomatillo-like fruits. The bread seed poppies are blooming. It seems late, but a look at the notes indicates it's not dramatically so. Okra and corn are still getting settled in their planted spots.
I'd planted the island caged area with pink buckwheat from Baker rare seeds. The deer love it, but under the wire i've seen the lovely pink flowers. I'd love to grow more in the future, but i'm not sure where i have for buckwheat that isn't deer zone, and the pink is just a little pricey for feeding the deer. The regular buckwheat is blooming elsewhere on smaller plants, a ground cover in my fight with the stilt grass.
There was a plant on the sunny berm that i couldn't identify but it didn't look like my list of learned weeds so i left it: and it's the bright orange butterfly weed. It's a perfect color for the bright berm. So far i've only seen it giving delight to bees, but time will tell. In the rain garden, the plants for the cardinal flower and great blue lobellia look fantastic. I hope for excellent flowering.
I haven't really thought well through planting out some of the remaining flowers and plants started from seed. Part of my sense of being out of sorts is knowing i need to do that but not mentally having the plan for it.
The weekend has passed ... oddly. I feel pretty out of joint with time. Part of it, i am sure is the long daylight. The news.
I feel very out of joint.
I realize i haven't gone through action ticklers since mid April.
--== ∞ ==--
Happy things:
*SIBS* Zoom visit with my sister and brother. At this time of year, Singapore is 12 hours ahead of North Carolina. We can meet when it is Saturday night for my sister and i and Sunday morning, before most of my brother's family wakes, for my brother. We had technical challenges but a good visit. I've bought a year's subscription to Zoom as a way to ensure we can have long meetings. And then we ended up using facetime. >_<
*MINT* I adventured with mint preservation today. Spearmint & peppermint in vodka to extract. Spearmint in a salt brine to ferment. Peppermint "massaged" with salt and just a little water for a "dry" ferment. (I've added brine from the spearmint just to make sure everything is oxygen free.) I've no idea what fermented mint will be like. I dehydrated spearmint, peppermint, and lemon balm for an hour -- that might have been too long, but the tea i made from the dried spearmint seems just fine. I was very careful to take the leading tips for the dehydrator, on the theory that -- like with tea -- that was the most intense part of the plant. The larger leaves on the rest of the stems went into the ferment and alcohol. Maybe next time i will make simple syrup.
Some mint went in with yogurt and i took my crop of peas,* cooked by pouring boiling water over them, and spooned them into a divot in the mint yogurt. I don't think i made the mint yogurt right. Probably missing the cucumber. And salt.
* Where "crop" is maybe a quarter cup after being shelled? I would need to plant much much more to get enough to have a real meal for two, i swear. Not sure why the Austrian peas did so well and the English peas, not so much.
--== ∞ ==--
*CATS* Worry about Luigi, one of our older cats, who doesn't do a good job grooming, who has a fine soft undercoat that mats, who screams when i brush his haunches and snaps at us. Every now and then i see tufts of loose hair and sometimes i can just pull them free without him noticing, but generally i get a yelp-y complaint. I wish i knew what discomfort he was feeling. Last night we got some of his mats around his neck where the collar hides them from my fingers. I should note we usually get the mats before they are bad, but we occasionally cut some loose. He doesn't look unkempt, but my fingers easily feel the lumps of more-fur-than-fits.
*HMPH* I observed cardinals swooping to and from the blackberry bushes. And of course the two just black but not quite ripe berries were gone. This leads me to believe i had seen an almost black berry that was liberated. I am hoping a whole bunch of berries comes ripe all at once and i can get some. Also, Carrie and Marlowe *NOW* that i need you to be chasing birds....? Meanwhile the new canes are rising up like monsters from the root crowns. Two of the four bushes are double-crop bearing bushes (Prime-Ark Traveler), and clearly are later than the other bushes for the first crop as their berries are big glistening green jewels. The Arapaho bushes are ruby red, leading me to wonder how attractive a photo of a male cardinal would be with them. Clash or compliment?
Meanwhile the blueberries are covered in fruit, although the plants don't evince the thriving that the blackberries do. I planted borage between them, and the blue star blossoms are blooming, but the plants are rather floppy and unattractive.
We've dried out from the days and days of rain. I watered the garden last night. So far the happiest summer plants are the winter squash i planted in the driveway island and covered with arches of wire fencing. They're now racing out from their protected cage. Deer prune the tender ends, but i think that's just going to force the vines to branch. I'm hopeful the location will be better suited to keep the powdery mildew at bay. I've berries on the ground cherries, sweet tomatillo-like fruits. The bread seed poppies are blooming. It seems late, but a look at the notes indicates it's not dramatically so. Okra and corn are still getting settled in their planted spots.
I'd planted the island caged area with pink buckwheat from Baker rare seeds. The deer love it, but under the wire i've seen the lovely pink flowers. I'd love to grow more in the future, but i'm not sure where i have for buckwheat that isn't deer zone, and the pink is just a little pricey for feeding the deer. The regular buckwheat is blooming elsewhere on smaller plants, a ground cover in my fight with the stilt grass.
There was a plant on the sunny berm that i couldn't identify but it didn't look like my list of learned weeds so i left it: and it's the bright orange butterfly weed. It's a perfect color for the bright berm. So far i've only seen it giving delight to bees, but time will tell. In the rain garden, the plants for the cardinal flower and great blue lobellia look fantastic. I hope for excellent flowering.
I haven't really thought well through planting out some of the remaining flowers and plants started from seed. Part of my sense of being out of sorts is knowing i need to do that but not mentally having the plan for it.
Trying to frame things as good, or at least focus on delights.
Marlowe is amazing and delightful:she is still so small compared to the boy-os. She must be heavier than she was when we adopted her in November: Christine guesses eight pounds. She dashes around the yard, following Carrie's modeling of hot laps. One afternoon when i was walking around the outside of the fence, she rushed up to the corner and climbed all the way to where the fence turns in. And the fence performed as it is designed: she turned back around and jumped down. She's been climbing trees. I think it was Sunday night when a brown thrasher was in the massive crepe myrtle, loudly calling "Tuck!.... Tuck!" Marlow was indignant and scrambled up into the tree until she found the point about ten foot off the ground where Christine had cut back one of the stems to rescue the drone. There she sat fussing at the bird. Eventually, she just jumped down. And last night, up she went in the small oak tree just off the back deck. Again, over ten feet up and considering more exploration.
I do not want her getting stuck out of our ladder's reach.
But her acrobatics and athleticism, her dashing after bugs and (sadly) frogs provides me with delight.
Carrie, too, is still playful. I don't think she and the kitten have quite sorted out games they can play together, but in this lovely weather Carrie wants to be chased around the yard, playing keep-away with her (gross) rawhide toy.
The attempt to solarize soil seems to simply be creating a warm place, not an oven. At the worst, perhaps all the weeds will sprout and then getting them out will be one swoop before putting out the tomatoes there. I am going to put out some tomatoes early in the patch i cleared last weekend.
Last evening i picked three turnips with proper turnip roots. The co-planted spinach and beets aren't thriving but i'll get proper turnips. I don't think i let the turnips out compete. Maybe the beets just need more time. The spinach is bolting, which - at smaller than baby leaf spinach - is kind of peculiar.
I keep reminding myself not to wish for summer heat, but i do wonder if the vegetable plants are impatient for warmth.
(Feeling glum and low)
Marlowe is amazing and delightful:she is still so small compared to the boy-os. She must be heavier than she was when we adopted her in November: Christine guesses eight pounds. She dashes around the yard, following Carrie's modeling of hot laps. One afternoon when i was walking around the outside of the fence, she rushed up to the corner and climbed all the way to where the fence turns in. And the fence performed as it is designed: she turned back around and jumped down. She's been climbing trees. I think it was Sunday night when a brown thrasher was in the massive crepe myrtle, loudly calling "Tuck!.... Tuck!" Marlow was indignant and scrambled up into the tree until she found the point about ten foot off the ground where Christine had cut back one of the stems to rescue the drone. There she sat fussing at the bird. Eventually, she just jumped down. And last night, up she went in the small oak tree just off the back deck. Again, over ten feet up and considering more exploration.
I do not want her getting stuck out of our ladder's reach.
But her acrobatics and athleticism, her dashing after bugs and (sadly) frogs provides me with delight.
Carrie, too, is still playful. I don't think she and the kitten have quite sorted out games they can play together, but in this lovely weather Carrie wants to be chased around the yard, playing keep-away with her (gross) rawhide toy.
The attempt to solarize soil seems to simply be creating a warm place, not an oven. At the worst, perhaps all the weeds will sprout and then getting them out will be one swoop before putting out the tomatoes there. I am going to put out some tomatoes early in the patch i cleared last weekend.
Last evening i picked three turnips with proper turnip roots. The co-planted spinach and beets aren't thriving but i'll get proper turnips. I don't think i let the turnips out compete. Maybe the beets just need more time. The spinach is bolting, which - at smaller than baby leaf spinach - is kind of peculiar.
I keep reminding myself not to wish for summer heat, but i do wonder if the vegetable plants are impatient for warmth.
(Feeling glum and low)
Tags:
- cats,
- dawg,
- depression,
- garden
HVAC: fixed -- there's a condensation drainage pipe with some sort of trap that was clogged up (not our maintenance fail) and once cleared, all was well. I know a few reassuring details such as yes, the external sensor should have two wires for one thermostat.
Mom pitched another fit about me coming over and, since there was HVAC anxiety, i stayed home and video chatted some with Mom. Now in a fit of calling my dad every thirty minutes to get him to follow up on his worries about mom - either calling her primary care provider or doing the home UTI test. Ideally both.
Last night fireflies flit in the tops of the pines while the waxing crescent moon cast my shadow on the drive. Today is overcast: we are promised rain soon. Afterwards i hope the air will no longer be green with pine pollen. I also expect a good rainstorm will determine the fitness of the Carolina wrens' latest construction before there are wren eggs to drown in the rain gutter.
One of my tiny pawpaw trees has a pawpaw flower bud! A lupine has sprouted near by: i wonder if it is a seed that lingered after last years seeding or a plant that survived last year's weed pressure. I spend the lunch hour walking around the yard with my hoe, chopping off the flower stalks and the rosettes of Oriental False Hawksbeard -- except for one day last week when there was an odd screaming sound and i was able to rescue the juvenile rabbit from Marlowe and Carrie.
The first three questions on the county news paper's FAQ about the county stay at home order: "Why", "How long", and, number three, "What gives the governor the authority to do this?" I can just hear, "He ain't the boss of me."
Mom pitched another fit about me coming over and, since there was HVAC anxiety, i stayed home and video chatted some with Mom. Now in a fit of calling my dad every thirty minutes to get him to follow up on his worries about mom - either calling her primary care provider or doing the home UTI test. Ideally both.
Last night fireflies flit in the tops of the pines while the waxing crescent moon cast my shadow on the drive. Today is overcast: we are promised rain soon. Afterwards i hope the air will no longer be green with pine pollen. I also expect a good rainstorm will determine the fitness of the Carolina wrens' latest construction before there are wren eggs to drown in the rain gutter.
One of my tiny pawpaw trees has a pawpaw flower bud! A lupine has sprouted near by: i wonder if it is a seed that lingered after last years seeding or a plant that survived last year's weed pressure. I spend the lunch hour walking around the yard with my hoe, chopping off the flower stalks and the rosettes of Oriental False Hawksbeard -- except for one day last week when there was an odd screaming sound and i was able to rescue the juvenile rabbit from Marlowe and Carrie.
The first three questions on the county news paper's FAQ about the county stay at home order: "Why", "How long", and, number three, "What gives the governor the authority to do this?" I can just hear, "He ain't the boss of me."
Tags:
As i was settling in to go to sleep last night, Marlowe stood next to me and began to piss. Why? And -- after getting linens in the wash and new linens for the bed -- when i settled back in bed, the wifi connection was down. The weird behavior with it the past week seemed to be coming and going so instead of troubleshooting i went to sleep.
It never came back and Christine spent hours trying to sort something out. She didn't set it up so i don't know how much she understands of how i have it configured. She managed to get very frustrated and she came to bed at 3:30 am. I woke and couldn't fall back to sleep. I did have a strategy to try with the network, so i got up around 4:30 to give it a go. Also, i needed to get the bedding in the dryer.
While working on documenting things and preparing a fall-back configuration, i determined that the router works when my laptop is plugged into ethernet (which we set up some time last week) and then stops when i unplug my laptop. This explains a certain amount of the intermittent failure as my work laptop is generally plugged in, but not always. The longest outage was when i went to work on the deck last Friday. Usually my work laptop just sits on the desk plugged in, so usually the wifi was working. I occasionally swapped out my personal laptop with the work laptop to do video at my desk, so that would have created some "outages". And when there was an outage, i was using the ethernet connection to bypass wifi to simplify trouble shooting and everything started working again. No wonder i felt gas-lit.
So, i've turned off the router, and set up one of the two wifi signals on the modem to use the same SSID and password as the router: most systems should just switch over to the modem's network with no effort. The other wifi signal i've given a clear name and that can be used when i turn the router back on to help troubleshoot.
OY. Now to go care for Mom and get Dad a break.
It never came back and Christine spent hours trying to sort something out. She didn't set it up so i don't know how much she understands of how i have it configured. She managed to get very frustrated and she came to bed at 3:30 am. I woke and couldn't fall back to sleep. I did have a strategy to try with the network, so i got up around 4:30 to give it a go. Also, i needed to get the bedding in the dryer.
While working on documenting things and preparing a fall-back configuration, i determined that the router works when my laptop is plugged into ethernet (which we set up some time last week) and then stops when i unplug my laptop. This explains a certain amount of the intermittent failure as my work laptop is generally plugged in, but not always. The longest outage was when i went to work on the deck last Friday. Usually my work laptop just sits on the desk plugged in, so usually the wifi was working. I occasionally swapped out my personal laptop with the work laptop to do video at my desk, so that would have created some "outages". And when there was an outage, i was using the ethernet connection to bypass wifi to simplify trouble shooting and everything started working again. No wonder i felt gas-lit.
So, i've turned off the router, and set up one of the two wifi signals on the modem to use the same SSID and password as the router: most systems should just switch over to the modem's network with no effort. The other wifi signal i've given a clear name and that can be used when i turn the router back on to help troubleshoot.
OY. Now to go care for Mom and get Dad a break.
Edward got out of the fence Wednesday late afternoon. Attracted to the fence by Christine and i sitting in the mossy glade (i was trying to just breathe and release the overwhelm), he found a hole and slipped through and then -- you know, it didn't look like we were going anywhare, maybe check out the bird feeder?
I spent time weaving wire and repairing the hole, but i didn't have heavy gauge wire like the fence.
Yesterday at lunch he disappeared, we stalked around, called, rang, then posted to NextDoor, texted my sister (just for solidarity). He came back around 1:30 -- a two hour outing. All the cats had to spend the rest of the day inside after that.
This morning i needed to let them out, particularly for fear of some inappropriate relief. We had bought a glowing pink collar for Marlowe, so i found the excess clear plastic and cut an Edward appropriate length. Out he went with the glowing tell-tale. I bustled about some things checking on him every few minutes, but he just seemed to do the usual patrol. I was back in the bedroom and could see him sitting on the steps.... and then he went back down to the stretch of the repaired fence. I think he just shoved his head under and slipped out that way. The glowing pink light was easy to follow and eventually recapture.
So, there's that.
--== ∞ ==--
Looks like we got a little rain last night. I really ought to get lettuce seedlings out in the garden because only the very dear hydroponic bib lettuce was available in the store. I'll eat violet leaves, thank you. (But Christine will have the bib.) I look at the national weather and see snow is called for some of y'all and ... we have 80°F high today.
--== ∞ ==--
Meeting is going to use Zoom for the duration, so i get to be Zoom coach.
I am tired. I wonder if it's right to go see Mom & Dad.
I don't know how anyone has time to look at free content. I was days behind in just finding my email and last night realized i had messages from days ago i hadn't seen. Not sure how that came about.
--== ∞ ==--
In good news, my caps key SEEMS TO BE WORKING! Huzzah, one thing i don't need to sort.
I can't figure out why my nice conferencing video camera won't connect to my personal laptop, so there's that.
And i can't figure out why so many people seem to have so much more time. No commute, Christine says.
The grocery trip last night was impressive -- no paper products at all, wow.
I spent time weaving wire and repairing the hole, but i didn't have heavy gauge wire like the fence.
Yesterday at lunch he disappeared, we stalked around, called, rang, then posted to NextDoor, texted my sister (just for solidarity). He came back around 1:30 -- a two hour outing. All the cats had to spend the rest of the day inside after that.
This morning i needed to let them out, particularly for fear of some inappropriate relief. We had bought a glowing pink collar for Marlowe, so i found the excess clear plastic and cut an Edward appropriate length. Out he went with the glowing tell-tale. I bustled about some things checking on him every few minutes, but he just seemed to do the usual patrol. I was back in the bedroom and could see him sitting on the steps.... and then he went back down to the stretch of the repaired fence. I think he just shoved his head under and slipped out that way. The glowing pink light was easy to follow and eventually recapture.
So, there's that.
--== ∞ ==--
Looks like we got a little rain last night. I really ought to get lettuce seedlings out in the garden because only the very dear hydroponic bib lettuce was available in the store. I'll eat violet leaves, thank you. (But Christine will have the bib.) I look at the national weather and see snow is called for some of y'all and ... we have 80°F high today.
--== ∞ ==--
Meeting is going to use Zoom for the duration, so i get to be Zoom coach.
I am tired. I wonder if it's right to go see Mom & Dad.
I don't know how anyone has time to look at free content. I was days behind in just finding my email and last night realized i had messages from days ago i hadn't seen. Not sure how that came about.
--== ∞ ==--
In good news, my caps key SEEMS TO BE WORKING! Huzzah, one thing i don't need to sort.
I can't figure out why my nice conferencing video camera won't connect to my personal laptop, so there's that.
And i can't figure out why so many people seem to have so much more time. No commute, Christine says.
The grocery trip last night was impressive -- no paper products at all, wow.
Tags:
Sunday 13:08 - feeling clumsy as i try to leave a comment. I decide to start this journal entry and then realize i should go fill out my airtable (fancy spreadsheet) for the past few days.
13:33 I am avoiding interaction: i skipped Meeting and have a stack of meeting emails i am avoiding. I am semi-fabricating the excuse of a migraine. It wasn't a migraine but something like trimengial neuralgia with the left half of my face and scalp burning and aching for over 24 hours. I always feel i should push through, and i was able to do other things. Interact with humans other than Christine, not so much. And she's spending tons of time in the studio, polishing The Soundtrack of Now. I will get to hear the first installment soon.
The snow has been lovely. Our back yard, with the slight north slope with the tall pines to the south caught the snow that seemed to be blowing out of the north east. The front yard's north east corner was near empty. The back yard had snow still on Friday evening. Unfortunately the snow is not amenable for small grey kittens to "make water" as the euphemism goes, so Friday morning i found the dog bed had been used, and Saturday morning i caught her as she began to relieve her self right next to me in the bed. At least that misadventure only involved one sheet and the hated mattress. I woke suddenly this morning certain that another event had occurred, but i think i am merely confusing the heavy perfume from the cat "edition" of Nature's Miracle with what it is to cover. I carried her out to the new litter box in the back porch, our "sorry you can't use the wilderness" offering. I think she scampered around the snow to get to something comfortable.
I've "shoveled" a path on the deck and the deck stairs that should help. We shouldn't see freezing temperatures until next weekend, so the deck should be clear soon. Although i am looking out at the white glacier and not seeing much change. Meanwhile, the saucer magnolia looks like it's going to burst into pink blooms ANY MINUTE. Which means that with the freezing temperatures over next weekend it will be, yet again, frost burned for my birthday.
What weird weather.
17:09 I listened to Christine's first "chapter" and am just blown away. Not surprised, as i've enjoyed and been impressed by her writing and musings for decades. But... wow. https://www.patreon.com/perchance
Then i saw my sister had called and she had to cancel having breakfast with me (but we will still meet and strategized about mom & dad, and future work together). And she said my dad needed to talk about something with Mom -- some autoimmune issue may have cause the lung nodules and there's some doctor tracking that down. I may not have needed to say that i wonder about treating things when she has a degenerative cognitive condition, because Dad got sad, and i got sad too. A wave of grim mortality crashes over me.
One of the saddest things was Dad saying that mom had been so sweet the past few months - and i think of how bitter and acerbic she was in fighting with him as i grew up. Something about the wistfulness, the ache in his voice -- he isn't ready, he wants time with her. I witnessed their marriage and ... i just don't understand. I can't imagine.
I went out to play with the pets in the back yard as the sun goes down. We're hiding a rawhide chew for Carrie and letting her snuffle it out. It was hard a month or so ago for her to do it outside, but now she uses her nose and finds it. Marlowe ambushes and chases Carrie -- Carrie barely noticing. I suppose it's like a younger sibling "playing" with you when you have your big kid business going on. Seeing the boyos like lions prowling the savanna, and Carrie and Marlowe playing -- it's a tonic.
13:33 I am avoiding interaction: i skipped Meeting and have a stack of meeting emails i am avoiding. I am semi-fabricating the excuse of a migraine. It wasn't a migraine but something like trimengial neuralgia with the left half of my face and scalp burning and aching for over 24 hours. I always feel i should push through, and i was able to do other things. Interact with humans other than Christine, not so much. And she's spending tons of time in the studio, polishing The Soundtrack of Now. I will get to hear the first installment soon.
The snow has been lovely. Our back yard, with the slight north slope with the tall pines to the south caught the snow that seemed to be blowing out of the north east. The front yard's north east corner was near empty. The back yard had snow still on Friday evening. Unfortunately the snow is not amenable for small grey kittens to "make water" as the euphemism goes, so Friday morning i found the dog bed had been used, and Saturday morning i caught her as she began to relieve her self right next to me in the bed. At least that misadventure only involved one sheet and the hated mattress. I woke suddenly this morning certain that another event had occurred, but i think i am merely confusing the heavy perfume from the cat "edition" of Nature's Miracle with what it is to cover. I carried her out to the new litter box in the back porch, our "sorry you can't use the wilderness" offering. I think she scampered around the snow to get to something comfortable.
I've "shoveled" a path on the deck and the deck stairs that should help. We shouldn't see freezing temperatures until next weekend, so the deck should be clear soon. Although i am looking out at the white glacier and not seeing much change. Meanwhile, the saucer magnolia looks like it's going to burst into pink blooms ANY MINUTE. Which means that with the freezing temperatures over next weekend it will be, yet again, frost burned for my birthday.
What weird weather.
17:09 I listened to Christine's first "chapter" and am just blown away. Not surprised, as i've enjoyed and been impressed by her writing and musings for decades. But... wow. https://www.patreon.com/perchance
Then i saw my sister had called and she had to cancel having breakfast with me (but we will still meet and strategized about mom & dad, and future work together). And she said my dad needed to talk about something with Mom -- some autoimmune issue may have cause the lung nodules and there's some doctor tracking that down. I may not have needed to say that i wonder about treating things when she has a degenerative cognitive condition, because Dad got sad, and i got sad too. A wave of grim mortality crashes over me.
One of the saddest things was Dad saying that mom had been so sweet the past few months - and i think of how bitter and acerbic she was in fighting with him as i grew up. Something about the wistfulness, the ache in his voice -- he isn't ready, he wants time with her. I witnessed their marriage and ... i just don't understand. I can't imagine.
I went out to play with the pets in the back yard as the sun goes down. We're hiding a rawhide chew for Carrie and letting her snuffle it out. It was hard a month or so ago for her to do it outside, but now she uses her nose and finds it. Marlowe ambushes and chases Carrie -- Carrie barely noticing. I suppose it's like a younger sibling "playing" with you when you have your big kid business going on. Seeing the boyos like lions prowling the savanna, and Carrie and Marlowe playing -- it's a tonic.
Tags:
- cats,
- dawg,
- depression,
- health,
- mom and caa,
- us,
- weather
Excellent thing: i made an onion mushroom quiche last night, letting the onions slowly cook in my big cast iron deep sided pan for almost all the time the crust pre-cooked. THey weren't fully caramelized but they were nicely transformed.
We now know it is Marlowe who is responsible for the puddles on the bed. Last night, as we went to bed late and my knee was making it hard to settle, i was able to observe some feline dynamics and the result. ( TMI )
Tuesday night we picked up a prepared "family-style" meal at a local restaurant and took it to my parents for a visit. It was good to see them, athough Mom is still rattled from the traffic in Florida from their Yuletide and first of February (birthday) trips. Too little stimulation day to day, i assume, leads to the traffic seeming overwhelming. I'll juon my sister and her kids there tonight for a Valentine's visit.
I may have over done it on Wednesday, walking Carrie and then walking through the grocery store. Seems like that should have been fine. But my knee was inflamed yesterday evening. Fie. I'm not yet regular with my exercises (which aren't specifically for the knee), but i'm not giving up.
I think the news of US politics and the coronavirus have become a monotonous relentlessness, that has deadened my curiosity. Christine and I had some discussions of how to determine the slope of persecution of the Other. While the immigrant and refugee situation is abhorrent, the travel bans just noxious, it is literally as well as figuratively at the border of "normal" government behavior. Abstractly, border enforcement is "normal" and the putative targets are "normal." It's definitely pushing the line, as are the various reproductive health regulations. The potential for horrors is clear; i don't think we are at a point where i need to fear. But that's all distressing to think about. And the energy to fight....
The political question of the moment seems to be whether Atty General Barr's protests about presidential interference are an authentic reaction or political theater to cover the interference. I perceive theater and am tired.
I have been intensely engaged at work, a sort of pleasure, in learning new data analysis skills. A colleague kindly wrote a bit of code for me to use an API, getting me over a barrier that would have been a time sink. The project that was daunting me all last year has been approved for the next step, and i am terrified.
Christine is continuing to work on her first audio-essay, recording and editing. Her standards are high, with the expectation of production values equal to This American Life. Which she will no doubt achieve. She had a mild panic when the Alexa skill for the serial audio essays (not a podcast!) seemed to imply that there was something rated "R" about the content: i talked her down to recognizing it was more a disavowal, an indication that Amazon was not certifying that there would be nothing offensive of problematic, not that there was an expectation. In fact, there may be audio ads, so that much of the advisory is correct.
Anyhow, i have postponed my day, tired from the late night, and must get on to work. Never seems like enough energy and time.
We now know it is Marlowe who is responsible for the puddles on the bed. Last night, as we went to bed late and my knee was making it hard to settle, i was able to observe some feline dynamics and the result. ( TMI )
Tuesday night we picked up a prepared "family-style" meal at a local restaurant and took it to my parents for a visit. It was good to see them, athough Mom is still rattled from the traffic in Florida from their Yuletide and first of February (birthday) trips. Too little stimulation day to day, i assume, leads to the traffic seeming overwhelming. I'll juon my sister and her kids there tonight for a Valentine's visit.
I may have over done it on Wednesday, walking Carrie and then walking through the grocery store. Seems like that should have been fine. But my knee was inflamed yesterday evening. Fie. I'm not yet regular with my exercises (which aren't specifically for the knee), but i'm not giving up.
I think the news of US politics and the coronavirus have become a monotonous relentlessness, that has deadened my curiosity. Christine and I had some discussions of how to determine the slope of persecution of the Other. While the immigrant and refugee situation is abhorrent, the travel bans just noxious, it is literally as well as figuratively at the border of "normal" government behavior. Abstractly, border enforcement is "normal" and the putative targets are "normal." It's definitely pushing the line, as are the various reproductive health regulations. The potential for horrors is clear; i don't think we are at a point where i need to fear. But that's all distressing to think about. And the energy to fight....
The political question of the moment seems to be whether Atty General Barr's protests about presidential interference are an authentic reaction or political theater to cover the interference. I perceive theater and am tired.
I have been intensely engaged at work, a sort of pleasure, in learning new data analysis skills. A colleague kindly wrote a bit of code for me to use an API, getting me over a barrier that would have been a time sink. The project that was daunting me all last year has been approved for the next step, and i am terrified.
Christine is continuing to work on her first audio-essay, recording and editing. Her standards are high, with the expectation of production values equal to This American Life. Which she will no doubt achieve. She had a mild panic when the Alexa skill for the serial audio essays (not a podcast!) seemed to imply that there was something rated "R" about the content: i talked her down to recognizing it was more a disavowal, an indication that Amazon was not certifying that there would be nothing offensive of problematic, not that there was an expectation. In fact, there may be audio ads, so that much of the advisory is correct.
Anyhow, i have postponed my day, tired from the late night, and must get on to work. Never seems like enough energy and time.
Tags:
News: i bailed on the preserved egg. Will try again sometime.
I'm not feeling great, a miasma that is emotional, physical, and cognitive. I will try and write about good things.
Marlowe is adorable: kitten paws under the bathroom door delight me. I let her romp in her glowing pink collar under the full moon last night. I watched the collar dash and hunt. She throws herself down on the floor, stretches and rolls over on her back, offering her tum for a belly rub. She's a morsel, a puddin', a munchkin, and trouble with a capital T.
I finally picked up shoes from the repair shop. These sandals had a strap almost chewed through by Carrie in her puppy phase, towards the end. Other than that damage, though, the rather expensive shoes i picked up in California in spring of 2018 were in good shape. I don't know that i'd worn them more than a few months. I also returned the thunderbolt cables. I think, together, that pair of errands recovered the value of a couple hundred dollars (the shoes plus the return). I also laughed and laughed at "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me:" so good to laugh.
I'm trying to decide if i should go back this spring for the identity conference. The negatives are travel and that much of the conference is about blockchain and self-sovereign identity: not directly relevant. I'd get to see California friends, though. But travel. It just makes the miasma feel heavier.
I did use Jupyter notebooks -- a nifty way to use python programming to do data analysis without getting mired down in scripting overhead -- to make some maps of where people in Meeting live. I knew we were scattered, but it was useful to see. I also drafted an agenda for meeting for business for next week. There's some dysfunction with buildings and grounds i am inheriting. Since the old clerk was wife of the treasurer, sister in law to the nominal head of buildings and grounds, and daughter in law to the Very Senior Friend who was all in the middle of talking to contractors ... well, that put her in an awkward place i am not in.
And at work yesterday i also made progress with Jupyter notebooks, merging monthly summary files. Overnight, the big monthly analysis files ran.
I'm not feeling great, a miasma that is emotional, physical, and cognitive. I will try and write about good things.
Marlowe is adorable: kitten paws under the bathroom door delight me. I let her romp in her glowing pink collar under the full moon last night. I watched the collar dash and hunt. She throws herself down on the floor, stretches and rolls over on her back, offering her tum for a belly rub. She's a morsel, a puddin', a munchkin, and trouble with a capital T.
I finally picked up shoes from the repair shop. These sandals had a strap almost chewed through by Carrie in her puppy phase, towards the end. Other than that damage, though, the rather expensive shoes i picked up in California in spring of 2018 were in good shape. I don't know that i'd worn them more than a few months. I also returned the thunderbolt cables. I think, together, that pair of errands recovered the value of a couple hundred dollars (the shoes plus the return). I also laughed and laughed at "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me:" so good to laugh.
I'm trying to decide if i should go back this spring for the identity conference. The negatives are travel and that much of the conference is about blockchain and self-sovereign identity: not directly relevant. I'd get to see California friends, though. But travel. It just makes the miasma feel heavier.
I did use Jupyter notebooks -- a nifty way to use python programming to do data analysis without getting mired down in scripting overhead -- to make some maps of where people in Meeting live. I knew we were scattered, but it was useful to see. I also drafted an agenda for meeting for business for next week. There's some dysfunction with buildings and grounds i am inheriting. Since the old clerk was wife of the treasurer, sister in law to the nominal head of buildings and grounds, and daughter in law to the Very Senior Friend who was all in the middle of talking to contractors ... well, that put her in an awkward place i am not in.
And at work yesterday i also made progress with Jupyter notebooks, merging monthly summary files. Overnight, the big monthly analysis files ran.
Tags: