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Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 10:28 pm
Hot, supposed to be hotter tomorrow. We're out of practice.
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 08:21 pm
Today started with the slightly terrifying sight of Firefly in the garden. 
( Read more... )
Enough excitement. I'm ready for a few really boring days!
( Read more... )Enough excitement. I'm ready for a few really boring days!
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 08:37 pm
That's what I was saying tonight, during multiple moments of eye contact. The mamma deer and 3 babies---who are now at least older teenagers---were at the next house from my mailbox today, but I was pretty sure they were heading to my place, cuz they hang out here. And they were. I said "Hi, Deer" while I got the mail, and then with some rare eye contact through my garage-shed as I carried my stuff in, and then through a back window, and then through the front window, as the 4 of them got dessert out front, after salad for dinner out back, while one of my cats sat and stared at them.
I've been following them all summer, and am always glad to see all 3 kids are still around.
The head of little gardening business (who put up my partial fence replacement this year and talked to me about putting in soem trees and then putting in some kind of yard next year, where I had the jungle cleared out a couple of years ago) told me that I should really have them come out and poison things this year, if we're going to try to make a partial yard-like thing next year. But I've been putting them off. At first it was because I was working on my little movie, but lately it's been cuz it's clear that the deer loving getting meals from the various unpoisoned-as-yet flora out back, and I don't want to poison them. I'm rooting for them. And they need to eat at my place, cuz the neighbors don't want them eating at their garden, and the cool-lookin' fence they put up around it is only a few feet high.
All the eye contact today was great. And saying "Hi, dear," cuz only the first one was really "deer", if you wanna know the truth.
I've been following them all summer, and am always glad to see all 3 kids are still around.
The head of little gardening business (who put up my partial fence replacement this year and talked to me about putting in soem trees and then putting in some kind of yard next year, where I had the jungle cleared out a couple of years ago) told me that I should really have them come out and poison things this year, if we're going to try to make a partial yard-like thing next year. But I've been putting them off. At first it was because I was working on my little movie, but lately it's been cuz it's clear that the deer loving getting meals from the various unpoisoned-as-yet flora out back, and I don't want to poison them. I'm rooting for them. And they need to eat at my place, cuz the neighbors don't want them eating at their garden, and the cool-lookin' fence they put up around it is only a few feet high.
All the eye contact today was great. And saying "Hi, dear," cuz only the first one was really "deer", if you wanna know the truth.
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 08:29 pm
We interrupt Lake Week for this one:
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 11:00 pm
Up early, and to my office, and thence to my Lord Sandwich, whom I found in bed, and he sent for me in. Among other talk, he do tell me that he hath put me into commission with a great many great persons in the business of Tangier, which is a very great honour to me, and may be of good concernment to me. By and by comes in Mr. Coventry to us, whom my Lord tells that he is also put into the commission, and that I am there, of which he said he was glad; and did tell my Lord that I was indeed the life of this office, and much more to my commendation beyond measure. And that, whereas before he did bear me respect for his sake, he do do it now much more for my own; which is a great blessing to me. Sir G. Carteret having told me what he did yesterday concerning his speaking to my Lord Chancellor about me. So that on all hands, by God’s blessing, I find myself a very rising man. By and by comes my Lord Peterborough in, with whom we talked a good while, and he is going tomorrow towards Tangier again. I perceive there is yet good hopes of peace with Guyland,1 which is of great concernment to Tangier. And many other things I heard which yet I understand not, and so cannot remember.
My Lord and Lord Peterborough going out to the Solicitor General about the drawing up of this Commission, I went to Westminster Hall with Mr. Moore, and there meeting Mr. Townsend, he would needs take me to Fleet Street, to one Mr. Barwell, squire sadler to the King, and there we and several other Wardrobe-men dined. We had a venison pasty, and other good plain and handsome dishes; the mistress of the house a pretty, well-carriaged woman, and a fine hand she hath; and her maid a pretty brown lass. But I do find my nature ready to run back to my old course of drinking wine and staying from my business, and yet, thank God, I was not fully contented with it, but did stay at little ease, and after dinner hastened home by water, and so to my office till late at night. In the evening Mr. Hayward came to me to advise with me about the business of the Chest, which I have now a mind to put in practice, though I know it will vex Sir W. Batten, which is one of the ends (God forgive me) that I have in it.
So home, and eat a bit, and to bed.
Footnotes
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 07:56 pm
A StarTrek StarCharts/StellarCartography question:
I suspect that HD 29172 used to be the preferred host star for Rotarran, thanks to the Hipparcos Mission data. Gaia Mission seems to have corrected the location of that star from 204 ly from Sol to 521 ly, though.
Granted that the shows as broadcast from 2017 are mostly sticking with the XY placements of known stars as published back in 2002. That's an editorial decision I mostly accept.
Here's some of the candidates I'm looking at, encircled for your review and discussion. Among them, HD 17224 is an A0V, and the thing that gives me pause about that star is that it's over 300 ly "below" Z=0.
I'm looking for opinions, rather than definitive answers here.
I suspect that HD 29172 used to be the preferred host star for Rotarran, thanks to the Hipparcos Mission data. Gaia Mission seems to have corrected the location of that star from 204 ly from Sol to 521 ly, though.
Granted that the shows as broadcast from 2017 are mostly sticking with the XY placements of known stars as published back in 2002. That's an editorial decision I mostly accept.
Here's some of the candidates I'm looking at, encircled for your review and discussion. Among them, HD 17224 is an A0V, and the thing that gives me pause about that star is that it's over 300 ly "below" Z=0.
I'm looking for opinions, rather than definitive answers here.
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Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 06:06 pm
Our internet melted down
For real.
Image: melted recylcing bin
Our neighbors one block over and one street down had a garage fire that melted a lot of stuff, including the overhead internet cable.
Why is your internet overhead, Lyda? The short answer is that our neighborhood is dense, old (as in the age of the houses and buildings) and poor. For whatever reason, the cable/internet providers aren't interested in burying our lines. They might be now? But, from what I could tell from watching their workers, they just restrung the cable, so, no, not so much.
I'd ask if you missed me while I was away, but I've been away from DW longer for much less exciting reasons. I was telling a friend today that the weirdest part of not having the internet was that I still had my phone and its data. So, I had all the WORST parts of the internet--the ability to doomscroll, waste time, etc.--and no ability to do the things that feel far more productive: write my novel, attend Zoom meetings easily, do my committee work, etc.
Stupid.
But at least it's back!
For real.
Image: melted recylcing bin
Our neighbors one block over and one street down had a garage fire that melted a lot of stuff, including the overhead internet cable.
Why is your internet overhead, Lyda? The short answer is that our neighborhood is dense, old (as in the age of the houses and buildings) and poor. For whatever reason, the cable/internet providers aren't interested in burying our lines. They might be now? But, from what I could tell from watching their workers, they just restrung the cable, so, no, not so much.
I'd ask if you missed me while I was away, but I've been away from DW longer for much less exciting reasons. I was telling a friend today that the weirdest part of not having the internet was that I still had my phone and its data. So, I had all the WORST parts of the internet--the ability to doomscroll, waste time, etc.--and no ability to do the things that feel far more productive: write my novel, attend Zoom meetings easily, do my committee work, etc.
Stupid.
But at least it's back!
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 06:49 pm
How does one compose an email to say "I got a job offer that seems just on the cusp of too good to be true, but as you and your company appear to actually exist I thought I should contact you and see if it *is* legit before I delete it"?
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 03:05 pm
At the creek, another two chairs that Dave and I like to sit on. They believe in "lean on me" too.
Today was the first time I have climbed the hill from walking down to the creek when I didn't have my heart act up. Usually as I climb the hill my heart rate goes down instead of up - weird - which makes me feel very shaky and light headed. But today, now that I have the heart monitor attached to my chest it didn't happen. Figures - makes me look like a liar just wanting attention. But I did start the new med last night and cut back on the metoprolol so maybe that's it. That would be great if it was the end of this worrisome issue.
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I took this pic today for my sister
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motherofearth45 so she could see how big the mirror mosaics are going to be. She thought they would be much bigger. No, just small. I got another 20 wooden frames today and plan to make 40 in all now. I am very into thinking up different combinations of decorative elements to go with colors of stained glass tessera. I want to do as many as I have concepts for. I have no idea what I will do with them all but so what? They will exist. And they'll eventually find homes I'm sure.
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 06:02 pm
What I read
Finished Dragon Harvest.
Read the latest Literary Review.
Read Angela Thirkell, What Did It Mean? (The Barsetshire Novels Book 23) (1954), which, I depose, is the one where Ange, sighing and groaning, realised that she was going to have to write The One About The Coronation, like what everybody else was doing. (The title alludes to a cryptic prophecy by one of the local peasantry.) So there is a fair amount of phoning it in, but on the other hand, some Better Stuff than one might expect for that period of her output.
On the go
And it's back to Lanny: Upton Sinclair, A World to Win (Lanny Budd #7) (1946), in which WW2 is raging but so far, USA is not in it and Our Hero can still pootle about Europe under the guise of being an art expert while mingling in very elevated company indeed.
Up next
Once that is done, I should probably turn my attention to the very different WW2 experience of Nick Jenkins in the next one up for the Dance to the Music of Time book group, The Soldier's Art.
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 09:44 am
Tuesday, August 19th, 2025 11:31 pm
Today was spent between watching my Youtube "Watch Later" list (don't even ask how many videos because it's A LOT, much like everything else in my life lol), clearing out my room so I can move my bed, and rebuilding my fanfiction library on calibre. It's been busy in one way or another. The good thing is that I found items I had been missing so, that's a win. It also means that I am seriously considering going to the rec center nearby and swim.
Basically, I have been wanting to get back into swimming because it allows for a lot more movement while feeling weightless, which would be beneficial for my joints. I am a very overweight individual with a questionable relationship with food, so I need something that won't harm what joints I have still while still getting me moving. And my step-dad swears by it. I had been thinking of doing this since last year some time but I tried working out in the gym at work and by the time I wanted to reconsider swimming, I couldn't find my goggles or my nose plugs lol. As a result of finding them today, I was thinking about seeing what time classes were at the rec so I could go outside of those times and just take a lane and swim a little bit. It would be the first time out of the house since I went and got groceries on Sunday. A good excuse for an excursion!
In other news, Culligan did finally deliver and thank goodness for that.
( More Rambling. . . )
Basically, I have been wanting to get back into swimming because it allows for a lot more movement while feeling weightless, which would be beneficial for my joints. I am a very overweight individual with a questionable relationship with food, so I need something that won't harm what joints I have still while still getting me moving. And my step-dad swears by it. I had been thinking of doing this since last year some time but I tried working out in the gym at work and by the time I wanted to reconsider swimming, I couldn't find my goggles or my nose plugs lol. As a result of finding them today, I was thinking about seeing what time classes were at the rec so I could go outside of those times and just take a lane and swim a little bit. It would be the first time out of the house since I went and got groceries on Sunday. A good excuse for an excursion!
In other news, Culligan did finally deliver and thank goodness for that.
( More Rambling. . . )Tags:
Tuesday, August 19th, 2025 10:54 pm
One last peach was lying on the pavement this afternoon for me to tuck into my pocket. They've been a great adjunct to my breakfast cereal.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2025 08:21 pm
Last night was pear pickup down at Pete Johnson's pear shed. Pete is a lovely guy. We loaded up some cardboard boxes for loup_noir and then stood around talking. Turns out that Pete's Aunt and Uncle ran a lodge up at Denali (Alaska) and that their kids, like M's kids, worked on the railway for the cruse companies during the summer. I swear there is only 2 degrees of separation in this world. Pete had sent of something like 18 tons of pears that day, headed for a Del Monte cannery. We were loading 2nds into our boxes, but they were still lovely pears.
After my session Chena & I took the walk that was strongly suggested before getting in the car and heading south to meet withloup_noir and her husband. Their house is definitely well out toward the very end of the road, so a fun and pretty drive. I very much enjoyed seeing the garden and orchard, not to mention the tutorial on catching gophers. I'll be putting that information into practice very soon. They gifted me with some lovely, and yummy potatoes and a big bunch of equally yummy kale.
The drive home was through Anderson Valley and Boonville which was very pleasant. It is an easier road than highway 20 which I usually take and made sense since I was already quite far south from Fort Bragg. Usually it just adds 25 or 30 minutes to an already long drive.
loup_noir and then stood around talking. Turns out that Pete's Aunt and Uncle ran a lodge up at Denali (Alaska) and that their kids, like M's kids, worked on the railway for the cruse companies during the summer. I swear there is only 2 degrees of separation in this world. Pete had sent of something like 18 tons of pears that day, headed for a Del Monte cannery. We were loading 2nds into our boxes, but they were still lovely pears. After my session Chena & I took the walk that was strongly suggested before getting in the car and heading south to meet with
loup_noir and her husband. Their house is definitely well out toward the very end of the road, so a fun and pretty drive. I very much enjoyed seeing the garden and orchard, not to mention the tutorial on catching gophers. I'll be putting that information into practice very soon. They gifted me with some lovely, and yummy potatoes and a big bunch of equally yummy kale. The drive home was through Anderson Valley and Boonville which was very pleasant. It is an easier road than highway 20 which I usually take and made sense since I was already quite far south from Fort Bragg. Usually it just adds 25 or 30 minutes to an already long drive.
Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 12:10 am
I'm putting the Substack column aside for a while. It's just too wearing, looking at the cruelties and misbehavior and idiocy and outright lawlessness of the current regime and writing commentary about it that essentially mirrors what others write.
I need some time not spending up to four days a week writing two columns for no money, columns that are at best depressing.
If I were still at a newspaper doing this, I'd have people who were in the business to bounce ideas off, and some support for the research needed. I am not Robert Reich, who has paid staff. I have me and a computer and occasionally a bookshelf.
And I want to do some lifegiving things for myself, like making more music and creating art and (as long as ICE is not present anywhere near me) going out into the park and breathing the green air of trees. I want to not have the heaviness of the column hanging over my head. I would rather play my flutes, and guitar, and maybe try harp. We have one that belongs to my husband, but he doesn't play often.
And I want to write things like poetry and fiction that don't require me to wear my reductive Inverted-Pyramid-style brain.
So I will notify people, later this week, that it will be more occasional and probably less political.
I need some time not spending up to four days a week writing two columns for no money, columns that are at best depressing.
If I were still at a newspaper doing this, I'd have people who were in the business to bounce ideas off, and some support for the research needed. I am not Robert Reich, who has paid staff. I have me and a computer and occasionally a bookshelf.
And I want to do some lifegiving things for myself, like making more music and creating art and (as long as ICE is not present anywhere near me) going out into the park and breathing the green air of trees. I want to not have the heaviness of the column hanging over my head. I would rather play my flutes, and guitar, and maybe try harp. We have one that belongs to my husband, but he doesn't play often.
And I want to write things like poetry and fiction that don't require me to wear my reductive Inverted-Pyramid-style brain.
So I will notify people, later this week, that it will be more occasional and probably less political.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2025 11:00 pm
Up betimes and to see how my work goes on. Then Mr. Creed came to me, and he and I walked an hour or two till 8 o’clock in the garden, speaking of our accounts one with another and then things public. Among other things he tells me that my Lord has put me into Commission with himself and many noblemen and others for Tangier, which, if it be, is not only great honour, but may be of profit too, and I am very glad of it.
By and by to sit at the office; and Mr. Coventry did tell us of the duell between Mr. Jermyn, nephew to my Lord St. Albans, and Colonel Giles Rawlins, the latter of whom is killed, and the first mortally wounded, as it is thought. They fought against Captain Thomas Howard, my Lord Carlisle’s brother, and another unknown; who, they say, had armour on that they could not be hurt, so that one of their swords went up to the hilt against it. They had horses ready, and are fled. But what is most strange, Howard sent one challenge, but they could not meet, and then another, and did meet yesterday at the old Pall Mall at St. James’s, and would not to the last tell Jermyn what the quarrel was; nor do any body know. The Court is much concerned in this fray, and I am glad of it; hoping that it will cause some good laws against it.
After sitting, Sir G. Carteret and I walked a good while in the garden, who told me that Sir W. Batten had made his complaint to him that some of us had a mind to do him a bad turn, but I do not see that Sir George is concerned for him at all, but rather against him. He professes all love to me, and did tell me how he had spoke of me to my Lord Chancellor, and that if my Lord Sandwich would ask my Lord Chancellor, he should know what he had said of me to him to my advantage, of which I am very glad, and do not doubt that all things will grow better and better every day for me.
Dined at home alone, then to my office, and there till late at night doing business, and so home, eat a bit, and to bed.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2025 03:26 pm
1) Even though I saw it months ago now, I never really wrote up thoughts about Andor S2. I think it's hard to compare the two seasons because S1 has a lot of setup and a pretty wide canvas whereas S2 sticks with the characters we already knew but also jumps forward in time repeatedly, leaving various things unexplained. ( Read more... )
2) Another bundle of Death in Paradise seasons and yet another new inspector. I was glad to see it though for various reasons.( Read more... )
3) Nothing like changing my email service to make it obvious how PR mailing lists work. I have maintained my Yahoo mail because after 25 years there was an awful lot tied to it that I will never remember to change. However very little comes to it now other than marketing emails for a variety of accounts I have. In fact, in one case my brokerage was still sending my statements to that address instead of the new one.( Read more... )
4) Nobody on TV ever has their blinds closed or curtains that can't be seen through. This stands out a lot in mysteries because there are inevitably lurkers and peepers and passersby. But there are so many shows with houses made of windows and clear doors etc.( Read more... )
5) Have that many people even ever had anchovies? Other than being an increasingly rare topping for pizza, I have to wonder how else people even encounter it. But this survey puts it at the top of the list for Americans' disliked foods.( Read more... )
( Read more... )2) Another bundle of Death in Paradise seasons and yet another new inspector. I was glad to see it though for various reasons.
( Read more... )3) Nothing like changing my email service to make it obvious how PR mailing lists work. I have maintained my Yahoo mail because after 25 years there was an awful lot tied to it that I will never remember to change. However very little comes to it now other than marketing emails for a variety of accounts I have. In fact, in one case my brokerage was still sending my statements to that address instead of the new one.
( Read more... )4) Nobody on TV ever has their blinds closed or curtains that can't be seen through. This stands out a lot in mysteries because there are inevitably lurkers and peepers and passersby. But there are so many shows with houses made of windows and clear doors etc.
( Read more... )5) Have that many people even ever had anchovies? Other than being an increasingly rare topping for pizza, I have to wonder how else people even encounter it. But this survey puts it at the top of the list for Americans' disliked foods.
( Read more... )Poll #33508 Kudos Footer-535
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Tuesday, August 19th, 2025 04:14 pm
