Can't write; I'm hidin' under the bed!

    I'm not really too alarmed about New Year's Eve drivers. It is true that I got off the road around half past noon. And maybe this is erring too far on the side of caution. But hey-- maybe not. Later when I was out taking my walk (staying off highly trafficked Olympia Avenue) I saw a deputy sheriff's car patrolling Olympia Cemetery. I was well-pleased that it's being patrolled but wondered if it was a zombie check.
    Mr. Harry, the conditionally courageous cat, has mostly been hiding behind the washer-dryer from the fireworks. He's come out now, but not far. Amelia is remarkably blase about the noise. Perhaps at 12 her hearing is not so sensitive. Or maybe she's been living with noisy me too long.
    There's a free show for New Year's Eve in front of the State House. In the past, they had George Clinton four years ago and Kool and the Gang with ZZ Ward opening two years ago. I don't remember other years. This year, it's Lauren Hill. I'm sure it would be a great show, but I don't know anything about Lauren Hill. It's neat that it's free, but I'm not that curious, nor that confident in the weather. So I think I'll remain hiding under the bed. Maybe Harry can make room for me behind the dryer!

Magic

    In some ways, it's been a magical year. This is so in spite of the mountains of tragedy contained within. Oddly, although I met wonderful people this year, what seems most magical is, well, magic. I took all these photos that didn't seem to involve me much at all. The luck of being in the right place at the right time to point and shoot, the luck of having siblings sending me camera quadcopters-- not a lot of talent is involved. IF IT EVER STOPS RAINING, the new quad should offer new horizons in cool pictures, since I'll be able to see what I'm doing while I'm doing it. I can hardly wait!
    In other news, I may have mentioned that in moments of stress, Amelia the cat goes up the chimney, worrying to me because the chimney is filthy beyond belief. Forever I've been looking for a fireplace screen. I could never find one the right size in thrifts and since she doesn't go up at all often, I couldn't raise the enthusiasm to go to a hardware store and buy a new one. Today I found one for $4. And it turned out to be exactly the right size. Victory is mine! Until she figures out she can move it easily. Remember, though, that this is the cat who can't figure out how to open a door that's already ajar. Victory is mine!

Don't you hate it when the thrift store guys have Internet?

    So the reason I look at Goodwill for audio equipment even though what I'm looking for is seldom present is because the locally owned thrift stores are not that free with the bargains. I went to one today and found a Denon tuner very, very, very well hidden. Online reviews were extremely enthusiastic, but predicated on "I bought it for $10 at a thrift store, and..." Dude wanted $100. He would go $75. And it's a good price. But it would be a better price if I needed a home theater system with 10 speakers, which is apparently what this one is for. It's pretty thermonuclear for what I need.
    I can afford it and all. It's just ever so much more fun finding the ultra cool component for ten or twenty dollars than for $75. And I'm a lot less likely to get furious if it turns out to have lightning damage or something at the lower price. All that said, I'm so eager to use my cool speakers that if I haven't found a cheap tuner at Goodwill within a week or so, I'll probably go back for the Denon. I don't think a lot of people are going to find it. But I wish it had been at Goodwill!

DJI Phantom: shortcomings

    To be fair, I should also share the less good things about the DJI Phantom I reviewed so enthusiastically the other day. (It's a camera quadcopter, in case I didn't make that clear.) There still isn't much wrong with the toy itself, or anyway not as far as I can tell. But a shortcoming is that you can't fly it in the rain, which is why I don't know any more about its flying characteristics. Also, without upgrading the firmware, I can't fly it under 60 degrees. This hasn't been a problem so far, but it really IS winter; someday soon it will be below 60. (Hopefully, the firmware update will tell me what the new cutoff is.)
    The main problem with Toy is that you have to use the DJI Go app to do anything with it, and the DJI Go app is really disinclined to be turned off. It eats battery and heats up the phone something pretty dramatic. I went into Battery under settings on the phone and forced it closed and it's behaved ever since. But I'd rather not do that every time. And battery still is draining pretty fast compared to before I installed it. I was also not best pleased that I had to register to use the app at all. So now all I need is a toy EXACTLY like DJI Phantom 3 Standard only one that will operate without an app. I'm sure there are DOZENS out there. (Yes, I know; sarcasm doesn't work in print. Ah well.)

Cat people

    I don't want to get in trouble with Malcolm McDowell and Nastassja Kinski (checked spelling, only missed by one letter), but actual cat people wouldn't be much like in the movie. They'd just be all about, "Is it dinner yet? Is it dinner YET? IS IT DINNER YET?!!!" Just like dog people, in fact. I never would have known this but for switching them to wet food. And to be fair it's just Harry who's so demanding. Not for nothing was he once called Starvin' Marvin.
    I finally hooked up my Goodwill receiver and speakers and... both left channels (i.e. A and B buttons) on the receiver are blown. Not totally, but unacceptably quiet and crackly. The speakers are superb, however. I set out to hit 5 or 6 Goodwills today to find another receiver. You can find untold numbers of VCRs and fax machines, large numbers of printers, and a good supply of DVD players, but receivers are rare. Of course there was a receiver at the first Goodwill I hit today. Thing is, it had an LED display that some of the lights were out on. Couldn't judge audio quality without speakers, but the burnt out lights put doubts in my mind, so I left it to fate and somebody else grabbed it before I went and got it. Ah fate. No receivers in the other two stores I visited, and time got away from me. Maybe I'll buy the Kenwood the lady on Facebook offered me. She might want more than $10, though.

Dreaming about dreaming about dreaming about...

    It finally happened. I had a dream in which I remarked to someone that I have dreams like this all the time. It was the usual thing. I was trying to get through an antique store where the proprietors had made practically no passageways and were actively moving things in the way of what few there were, especially a long narrow ramp that was the only way to get from one part of the store to another. Then a high white ridge rose up. Another fellow and I, the only ones who seem to have noticed, were trying to get over it, and that's when I made the remark. Why we couldn't just turn around and leave is a question I can't fathom, but perhaps it was an obstacle course antique store and you got points for making it all the way through.
    There was also some business outside involving perilous cliffs and panoramic views. When at the new Star Wars, I thought (not a spoiler), "Oh great, now my dreams are taken care of for the next ten years." Well one night anyway. (Cliffs, I hope, are not a spoiler. Just scenery, really!)

DJI Phantom = pretty highly recommended

    Or, in a word, TOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYY! My friend Tamara and I went for Indian buffet this afternoon and a Christmas 3D screening of the new Star Wars (also highly recommended). In between, we gave the new DJI Phantom a short test flight. Man, what a great toy! It actually hovers; the other ones were supposed to, but never remotely succeeded. This one goes straight up, comes straight down like an elevator. Looks like new horizons in total insane fun. Unfortunately, the park we were playing in was just starting to dry out after the latest round of insane rains. And the Phantom featured dire warnings about bad things that happen if the battery gets wet. So we didn't play with it long.
    Drawbacks are few. The company forces you to register to use the app. You have to have the app to control the camera. On the bright side, you control the camera via your phone, clamped to the remote control. I didn't know how yet so I have no pictures or video, but it looks straightforward, even if the controls are small. I had been thinking it just filmed everything all the time, because the phone display shows little still pictures of whatever the camera is looking at. I guess you could say it transmits video but doesn't record it unless you tell it to. I'll see.
    Regardless, crazy stupid fun toy!

Japonica

    That Jeopardy memory of mine is a little scary sometimes. I was walking in Olympia Park and noticed that the camellia bush near Rocky Branch (creek) was going crazy, not something I would expect on Christmas eve no matter how warm it is. (Very.) And the name Japonica sprung into my head. I looked it up, and indeed, that very bush looked exactly like Wikipedia's idea of a camellia japonica, also called the winter rose. So not that surprising that it would be going nuts this time of year regardless of temperature. The things you learn!
    The name reminded me that growing up we had a bush in the yard that our parents called japonica, so I tried looking it up. I found a lot of plants called Japonica (not surprising, as it just means Japanese), but none of them looked familiar, or even close. I was a little frustrated; it's japonica, dammit! My parents weren't ever wrong. Eventually I turned up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaenomeles or Japanese quince, in which entry the Wikipedia writer somewhat puts down people who call this Japonica, as it isn't a very specific epithet. Oh yeah? You come over here and say that!:)
    Malcolm sent me a DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter, a seriously badass toy, and now I have to wait for the weather to clear up before I can play with it, which is looking to happen some time in 2017. Just about bouncing off the walls here!

Easier than I expected

    I've been meaning to switch the rotten stinkies (cats) to wet food for ages but was stopped because the last time I tried it didn't go well. Or at all, really. At the time, Alice's older cat had died and we got a ragdoll kitten who was unclear on the whole ragdoll concept and thought she was a ball of fire instead. She ate all the wet food and Amelia showed little interest in it. So I thought she just preferred dry and left it at that.
    I knew that Harry felt differently because he would come running every time I opened any vacuum sealed can. So when my friend Tamara gifted the cats cans of high-end grain-free cat food, I was happy to give it a try. They went nuts! But in a good way. They didn't fight over it. Amelia ate her fill and Harry cleaned both plates and I think everybody was pretty satisfied. I bought another 14 cans. Today was the first day I fed them morning and afternoon. It went well. Tamara was here for the latter so I let her feed them. Harry, who had earlier run from her, suddenly regards her as his very bestest friend. Amelia isn't that easily won, but she dug it, too. So that went well!
    Tamara and I went to Charlotte in hopes of getting her laptop fixed at the Apple Store, but before Christmas turned out not to be the ideal moment for that move. And the rains came down astonishingly hard, complete with lightning and thunder. So we bailed, but not before having an outstanding meal at favorite Spanish place Miro. My favorite Charlotte Ethiopian restaurant has closed, but Miro continues to thrive, if in a new location. We were best pleased.

More boredom than I needed particularly, too

    Before I went to Precision Tune yesterday, I went by Time Warner Cable to try to pay William's cable bill using their handy dandy pay and go machine. It only gave me the options to pay with cash, credit or debit instead of the normal magical put-a-blank-check-in-and-your-bill-is-paid method. I asked the nearest service rep what was up and she said I probably needed to talk to them about my account and to take a number and wait my turn. I didn't exactly say anything four letters long and Anglo-Saxon but noted that I couldn't do that right then.
    After car repairs and lunch, I went back and took my number. It was maybe a half an hour wait until they called my number and I went up to the same lady who said that the machine had just needed fixing and would take my check no problem now. For some reason, I wasn't the least bit angry about this. I guess I was hungry for the smart phone Sudoku time. Anyway she was right and the machine worked perfectly. I also explained about the car troubles in the morning so she wouldn't think I was just being rude and impatient. Or anyway so she'd know there was a valid reason.
    I resisted the temptation to suggest that for future ref, they might want to tape a sign on the door saying that the pay and go machine was now taking checks again. Somehow, people never appreciate your pointing out the very, very, very obvious. I wonder about that.

More excitement than I needed particularly

    Yesterday, as I was driving home from Fran's holiday party, my oil light came on a couple of times, but went right back off again. (Flashed, you could almost say.) This morning, it did it again. I wasn't quite due for an oil change, but am not fond of seeing oil lights come on, so I took it in early. This was a good move.
    The tech told me there was no oil at all in the crank case. He recommended an engine flush, which I OKed. Later, he mentioned another 58 things that were going wrong and noted that the leaks weren't very bad so they figure I'm burning oil. The battery was covered in corrosion again, so I OKed fixing that and treating it so supposedly it wouldn't happen again. But further work seemed insane. It's really time to retire the old vehicle and get something new, so I just asked him to get it so it would run for a few weeks. It would be nice to be in something that isn't a rattletrap. It's been advantageous having a car so filthy looking that it's recognizable (distinctive is a nicer word) but I think it's run its race. Hey, I've had it 9 of its 21 years; it was a pretty good run.
    The trick is finding a used car in an area that's been inundated recently. I'm thinking my best strategy is to look for something really really specific. Either that or I'll drive up to North Carolina. Or you know, car jack somebody. Yeah!

Spoke too soon, # a billion

    As it's been sunny out and got up near 60 degrees, Miss Amelia has of course decided that she must go outside again. Or possibly she's just being a cat. I got her back in once by using the nuclear option (getting the broom, sweeping leaves) but I'd rather do this as seldom as possible, since she's only going to be scared of the sweeping sound and run inside for so long. In fact she faked me out this time and ran away from the door at first; if she'd kept going I would have been truly screwed. Fortunately she reverted to form after that.
    It's going to be warm again in a day or two, so I'll be ever so much more happy to let her out again for at least the week or so that it's warm. Could be worse though. At last night's party, I was told about places further out of town where pet cats are getting killed by coyotes. Hot damn! Something else to worry about!
    A real nice Bernie Sanders volunteer just knocked on the door, which thrilled me to no end, I mean that they are doing door-to-door in SC. As Amelia is scared of people, this may have also solved the WANT GO OUT problem for a little while. I hope.

Kitty roller coaster

    I'm pretty sure I've already said at least three times that the revolution is over, the will of the resistance has been broken, the kitty is willing and even eager to stay inside. And uh these statements proved to be a little on the over optimistic side. Not in the Rumsfeld realm, but maybe a trifle over optimistic. Today is cold. That certainly didn't stop her yesterday, but she's mainly been nappy all day and only bugged me a very little bit, wasn't overly whiny and gave up pretty quickly. This in spite of the fact that Harry was out gallivanting in the cold for most of the afternoon. All this means is that it has been a good day today at least as far as kitty whining goes. Hopefully this keeps up. I am not holding my breath. But if it holds up a couple of days until it's warm again, I can go for it.
    I'm invited to parties today and tomorrow. I was also invited out on Hallowe'en. It's like a new world! Unless Miss Amelia has just been resting up for a truly magnificent whinefest, I expect to be going to both parties.
    My beef stew always tastes good but the meat is always too tough because I don't cook it long enough. So this time I cooked it for freaking hours. If it doesn't turn out this time, darn it, I'm looking for gluten-free Dinty Moore!

Paragraph breaks, indents

    Huh. About a month ago, the composition page for Blogger started looking different. A little different. Almost exactly the same until you add text. That showed up in a totally different font, but I figured this was the only change, a minor, tiny one.
    However, I finally got around to looking at one of my entries as posted on the Internet (as against just what it looks like on the composition page) and found that my paragraph breaks and indents as created in Notepad had vanished. (I've been composing in Notepad all along since you can't put in indents on the composition page, anyway not without switching to composing in HTML which isn't one of my favorite things. I just checked; you still can't.) So for the past month or so, my blog has been going out as a block of text. So if you've been reading it, all apologies. This here is an attempt to see if I can get any kind of break in. If not, it's been fun but it may be time to go. Although it might be fun to free-form it for a while. Blank verse blog? Cool!
     Edit: Huh. Turns out I had at some point inadvertently hit the HTML button. Hitting the Compose button instead gave me back my breaks and indents. Well that was simple! Now to go back and fix the old ones.

Feets do your stuff

    When I'm crossing a busy street on foot, or anyway when I'm in some way jaywalking, I invariably stop in mid-street and put my feet right next to each other. I imagine that this signals to drivers that I'm not going to lurch out in front of them. I don't know if anyone actually gets this message or not, but anyway no one has ever run me down, so there's that.
    I don't think I've seen other people do this, but then most people inclined to jaywalk don't stop at all, just relying on providence or the kindness of others that the cars will stop, slow or change lanes. I'm not sure why I do it nor when I started. I'm wild guessing to be polite and Philadelphia, where there are a lot more busy streets to cross, respectively. Funny thing is that telling it like this, I feel ridiculous thinking that anybody on the road might care whether a pedestrian signals his intention to stay still by keeping his feet together. But I don't think I could stop doing it if I tried. For some crazy reason it makes me feel safer. One of those rituals nobody teaches you, I guess.

I'm not funny in my sleep

    Now and again I come up with a joke in my dreams. Until now I never remembered them so I could always convince myself that I had just forgotten the killer joke. Under those circumstances, it's almost a relief finally to remember one. The worst thing is that first I thought I had woken up and really really believed it was the killer joke and was going to post it on Facebook and then... I really woke up. This is the joke, rephrased slightly so it makes as much sense as it can: "If a beef is a fight and hash is a fight, beef hash must really be dangerous!"
    Now in my heart of hearts, I really believe that somehow this joke can be saved, that there's some other beef dish where both parts of the name in some way refer to a fight. Beef stew? No. Beef barley soup? No. I think I just want to hold on to the belief that I'm funny 24 hours a day. I've got it! I'm absurdist in my sleep! That's got it!

All this purring suggests that she's not that furious

    Amelia is still in "How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm" mode regarding the great outdoors and when I bring her in too soon, she's whiny and petulant as a terrible two-year-old. But all the purring she does the rest of the time suggests that she has a pretty good idea that she isn't being all that terribly mistreated. Frankly, just this minute the weather is so glorious that I want to be outside more eagerly than she. But I felt the need to make some cookies.
    And there was a senior moment. I completely forgot to set the timer on the cookies in the oven, nor did I much note the time when I put them in. I took them out and they neither look nor smell too burned up, but I feel an idiot and a half. Since they have to cool for ages before they're particularly taste-testable, I guess I'll just wonder. No I won't!
    OK, the first one I grabbed happened to be the one browned the most on the bottom. It didn't taste wonderful, but it tasted fine. I'm sure the rest will trend more towards wonderful. These are the Triple peanut cookies that I made once before, but again demoted them to double peanut, substituting chocolate chips for the actual peanuts because I miss Reese's peanut butter cups. They aren't very Reese-like, but people like them. And now we're going outside!

Incredibly keyed up about nothing

    In order, the Obamacare deadline, which I could meet easily just by, you know, meeting it; paperwork attached to my Dad's estate, which I just have to do; similarly, an email to the lawyer for the estate, which might require typing an entire SENTENCE; a spot on Harry's eye, which at worst would require a trip to the vet, something I've done already with no tears; and silly computer game difficulties, which don't even merit commentary, so you know I'm going to comment.
    I just seem to have managed to get up to maximum stress level for no reason whatever. The whole thing about Amelia wanting to go outside, well really that's neat. I don't know how I'm managing to get keyed up about that either. I would switch to decaf except for long since having switched to no caf.
    Ok, the computer game thing. I'm not telling this for therapy purposes, but just because it's bizarrely funny. In Sims 2 (yes it's ten years old), your female characters can get pregnant the old fashioned way. Your male characters can spend too much time stargazing through a telescope and wind up pregnant with a space alien baby. Back when I played this a lot, ten years ago, this only happened once or twice. With the new (to me) expansion pack, it happened twice on succeeding game days to the only two characters in the game! This could prove to be a pain in the butt, as it were. I think I'll marry them off to rich ladies. Two space alien babies in one house? Might be tricky.

Seasonal nap affective disorder

    I don't think I have a lot in the way of seasonal affective disorder anymore as we rocket towards the solstice. I just seem a lot sleepier. I don't feel depressed and especially not extra depressed. Just sleepy early because it gets dark so early. I have no idea how I survived England and can only imagine winter in, say, Trondheim or the highlands of Scotland. Not a fan of short days nor of cold weather.
    Fortunately, we're still getting crazy stupid warm weather. It looked for a while like we might get a December thunderstorm, which would be pretty funny, but nothing came of it. Amelia went out twice and came in both times on her own and seems satisfied with short stints as porch cat. Hopefully, she'll get over it when it's really cold or really hot. I'm still scared to vacuum thinking it might inspire fresh agitation to go outside, but I can't put it off much longer if I like breathing. Oh well, she's coped so far.
    I was annoyed that my cotton blankets had shrunk, and equally at how hard it was to find new cotton blankets, preferably not made in China. Found one at Kmart and a cotton quilt (though made in China) at Kohl's heavily discounted. Queen sized blankets just are not as large as I think they should be, but though these aren't so much larger than the shrunken ones as I would like, they are larger. And should be warmer. This will be nice momentarily when it gets colder.

The rebellion waxes and wanes

    About the time I think that Amelia has totally lost interest in the outside world or going out in it, she keeps me up half the night whining about going out. It appears that her primaray motivation might not be any keen interest in outside so much as being jealous that Harry gets to go out. Before the whining, she spent much of the evening out, eventually exploring the yard and winding up hiding in a huge bush right up against the house.
    Today, however, she's been sweet and my best friend again. I let her out in the afternoon (with crazy beautiful 80 degree weather). I moved my bungee chair to the front gate so she couldn't get by. And she did no exploring at all. She just hung out on the porch, looking content, and eventually moved into the doorway. So I moved the chair back and came and closed the door. And she's continued to be buddy buddy and hasn't whined a bit. Maybe I just have to let her stay out until she gets bored. Or maybe she's a cat and acts different from day to day and minute to minute. Well we'll see.
    Our excitement on the street was a house half a block up Ohio blowing up. I was listening to Casey Kasem and didn't even hear the bang. I did see all the fire trucks and ambulances, though. Turned out to be a meth lab on what used to be the second floor. You never know, do you?

Too great

    The lawyer for Dad's estate emailed the other day. I was puzzled by it but couldn't figure out why, so I kinda sorta ignored it for a while. Today I looked at it again and figured out why. He referred me to an attachment that wasn't there. So I emailed him back remarking about this. What's great is that Thunderbird (the email package, not the inexpensive wine) saw the word attachment and reminded me to send an attachment. I think maybe I'll suggest that the law firm switch to using Thunderbird (the wine or the email package).
    Having two indoor-outdoor cats running my life continues interesting. Amelia just wants to be on the porch to look around. She doesn't really want to do anything. So far. It's that so far part that worries me, that and the whole Curiosity killed the cat thing. But I think it's making her happy, we're probably all breathing a lot better getting more fresh air, and she deserves a better look at the outside world after ten years. How I'll feel about this when it's cold again is quite another question.

Outside? Meh.

    So after a couple of days of having free rein to explore, Amelia seems to have figured out that outside isn't really all that exciting and that there's a lot to be said for the indoor life. She still likes going out and looking around, and there's still a certain air of wonder and delight. But she almost has to be coaxed outside, and says "Heck with this!" and comes inside much more quickly. We are looking at a magnificent and warm weekend, so I hope she gets it out of her system thoroughly in the next few days. One senses that magnificent days will be few and far between over the next month or so. Unless my calendar is very very confused.

The brave 'splorer

    Amelia the cat, after ten years of being an inside only cat, has decided that she wants to see the world. This would not be news if I spoke cat; it turns out that her tearing up the area in front of the front door over the last year or years means "LET ME OUT!!!" Since I don't trust her too much in the big dangerous world, I'm spending a lot of time on the porch keeping an eye out. This is pretty funny since the cats have fur coats that they were born in but I dress for polar exploration just to sit out on my (admittedly pretty shady) porch.
    She doesn't go far. At first, she wouldn't leave the porch. Then she went down one step. Then she went down two steps. Today she went all the way down and went most of the way down the walk. She doesn't actually interact much with actual soil. I don't know if she's prissy or what. But she's bright-eyed as anything out there, so I figure it's a good thing.
    She also runs back in a lot. Sometimes she hears a person, sometimes a dog, sometimes a door slam. It's weird what alarms her and what doesn't (freight trains don't, for instance). All this means that I need to leave the door open all the time, OK now that it's almost winter and the bugs are less savage. But this won't be much fun some day soon when it's warm again and they're out in their gazillions. Maybe it's time to buy a house with an enclosed porch. Or find my little girl a new home.

Epic waste of time

    I will try to be brief. I'm still playing Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword maniacally or addictedly or both. This even though the one-handedness of playing is destroying my left shoulder. But it's usually fun, at least until you get into involved end-games that you can't, well, end.
    The epic I just finished was majestic, though. You start out with seven civilizations. At the very start of this game, or nearly so, there was a barbarian uprising and the Romans and Koreans were eliminated. However, their cities weren't wiped out but taken by the barbarians. So I went and got them. So I'm instantly much bigger than anybody else and I just grew and grew.
    Unfortunately, while the game has ways for you to win quickly when you're huge, they don't work when you're extra huge; you have to work your way up to mega huge for another method. In other words, diplomatic victory isn't available if you're big enough to swing the election yourself. The only thing available is a domination victory requiring you to get about 2/3 of the world's land surface, which is hard to do for a committed pacifist.
    So the game was endless. I eventually got my rocket ship to Alpha Centauri, the old standby Civilization victory condition. And it was only 1927, which was cool. The game wasn't impressed. Although I rated Augustus Caesar (the best), it was a pretty low adjusted score. My unadjusted score however was far and away the best ever. So I was impressed at least!
    Hey, don't complain; I could have blogged about my peeing dreams.

Acme!

    So I found a winner at Goodwill, sort of. It's four episodes of The Shadow on two cassettes. It's promoted as episodes never available before, and there's much mention of Orson Welles and Agnes Moorehead on the box. As it turns out, Orson and Agnes are nowhere to be heard and the shows weren't available before because they're in terrible shape. However, what I could hear of them was crazy stupid fun. Also the sponsor was Acme, makers of self-polishing wax. Wile E. Coyote take note. Also, The Shadow has the most annoying laugh up until Fran Drescher, and uses it at the least appropriate times. Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!
    At the next Goodwill, I found an expansion pack for Sims 2. The Shadow cassettes, almost impossible to find, were 50 cents. The expansion pack for a 10+ year old game available anywhere was $3. Mind you, I can afford it. But the pricing is irritatingly arbitrary. Less so if I can play the game without a disk in the disk drive, though, but I'm not betting a lot.

Edit: two of the four Shadows did feature Orson and Agnes as it turns out. Yay!

As we barrel towards the anniversary

    As we draw closer to the anniversary of Dad's death, I think I'm OK. Could be better, but who couldn't? Facebook has a delightful feature where it shows you your past posts on this day a year or two years ago, etc. I tried switching it off because I knew we were coming up on a time when I really didn't want to see my posts from a year ago, but it kept switching itself back on. So I went to Options and gave it a range of dates not to show me posts from (a year ago up until Dad's death or funeral, I forget which). And that seems to work. I really don't need any reminders; distractions would be nice.
    I keep wanting to tell the siblings to come down, the weather is so nice, but a glance at weather sites says that the weather in the northeast is at least as nice. This isn't anything to complain about, but it sure is unusual this time of year. But I'm sure one day winter will come there but not here and I'll say, "OK come down now!" And they might.

Super duper

    When I was a lad and could grow bangs and make wee-wee in under ten minutes, I was lucky enough to go visit France. Of course we loved the museums and gardens and food and cafes and topless beaches and all. But we also experienced regular everyday French life, and were puzzled by hypermarches. (Hypermarkets. You'll just have to take my word for it that there's an accent over that E.)
    I may have mentioned this before, but I think at least I'm going somewhere slightly different this time. Hypermarkets would be about at weird as a Super Walmart to 21st century American teens, but they were pretty wild in 1979. And where I'm going with it this time is that I was passing by the Dollar General near my dad's house. When I was a kid and still in 1979, it was a Red & White supermarket. Later on my way home on Rosewood is the Dollar Tree, which used to be a Piggly Wiggly.
    Point of all this is that Walmart didn't just kill the downtowns of small towns. Smaller supermarkets bit the dust, too. Still, Walmart's hypermarket model hasn't exactly won out. For some reason, supermarkets are just bigger than they used to be, but not quite hyper. And where the smaller supermarkets were are stores that also have groceries of a kind, although I myself won't eat anything from there. Also all drugstores are bigger, and also carry groceries. I do know who's buying groceries from the dollar stores (really poor people) but I don't know who is buying groceries from drugstores. (Presumably people with more money than time, or really desperate people without cars.
    I'll admit that I don't have any point to all this; I must composed the first sentence and really liked it. Ok there's a point with no point: all the little supermarkets went away; I just don't know why. Hey, I used to buy my baseball cards at that Red & White! Come back!

Odd thing to gloat about, I know

    I stayed up to hear the miraculous (or anyway very very very lucky) ending of the Green Bay-Detroit game last night. I did not have a premonition, a sixth sense or any other feeling that something amazing might happen. It was just plain old common sense; if a team down 20-0 in the third quarter can score two touchdowns in a minute and a half, then they can probably come back at later points, too. However, if anyone wishes to impute to me fabulous psychic powers, well I'm willing to accept the laurels.
    Harry still seems subdued but by no means cowed. Meanwhile shy Amelia is getting a little bit braver regarding the big scary outdoors. She'll go out on the porch, but she comes back in if I'm out of sight. She doesn't try to come back in if I close the door on her from the inside (even though I'm out of sight then) but she comes back in if I close the door from the outside. I'm not sure I'll ever work out the cat logic behind all this, but it's pretty delightful.
    Yesterday's entry was almost impossible to post. I suspect that the new version of Avast free antivirus is even worse than the previous one. And that our little entente is soon coming to an end. Anybody out there with a better suggestion for free antivirus software is oh so welcome to offer one.

Domesticated?

    I daresay that Harry is not completely transformed by being jumped on by Amelia the other day, but he has been strangely subdued. He spent most of yesterday indoors but that was natural; it was raining. Today, though, it was just cloudy and not particularly cold and he spent most of it indoors, too, never agitating to go out. I forgot he was here to be frank, which heretofore has been pretty difficult to do.
    I think it's all just a coincidence. Maybe he just has kitty seasonal affective disorder. I don't remember clearly since things were pretty bad in my life a year ago, but I think he was pretty much equally full of beans all winter last year. Anyway any time it wasn't raining, snowing, sleeting or freezing. Anyway, somebody is coming over now most likely bringing treats, so I bet his outlook is about to improve markedly!

Could it be progress?

    Amelia jumped Harry last night. This may not sound like progress and it may not be progress but it seems encouraging to me. I don't know if I can explain why. After a year of cold war and feints and hissings, well, she finally conveyed that she is in fact bigger. In my dreams at least, this may mean that they can start getting along better, or anyway keep their distance better. Harry is unfortunately fearless. Unfortunate as he is not a large cat.
    Harry went out shortly afterwards and didn't come in at bedtime. I did wake in the night and let him in a little after 3:30. They behaved very well all night and pretty well during this rainy day. They're really sweet cats; I still hope they can get along someday.

Wanna buy a watch?

    My old watch was still running, but the light no longer worked. Or rather, I would push the button and the display would light up sort of, but the actual time would disappear. So in the sense of actually doing its job, no it wasn't working.
    This watch had been good to me, or anyway the cloth strap had. I'm not fond of metal straps and not much more fond of plastic ones. But it was time for a new one, and Kmart as it happened had a sale. And I found a neat Sharp watch at deep discount and decided to live with the plastic strap.
    I dunno, it's never worked out. I have a tiny tiny bump on my wrist which it just always seems to aggravate. I tried it on my right wrist but that's just too weird for me, and it wasn't overly comfortable there either. So finally I realized that whenever I go out, I have my phone (which features a clock) and when at home I'm often on the computer (which features a clock). The only time I need a watch is when I'm playing computer games and the clock is disabled. So I checked through my dead AA batteries and found one that was only mostly dead, stuck it in my Dad's old clock I got him for the nursing home where he couldn't wear his watch, and bingo, I'm watchless. I'm hoping the dang bump will eventually go away and I can wear my Sharp watch again. After all, you need to keep a Sharp watch.

No. Yes.

    Credit/debit card payment stations in retail establishments normally give you your total and ask if you want to pay and offer the answers Yes or No from left to right. Lowe's for some reason has it No or Yes and I came within a millimeter of saying No. I suggested to the checker that they REALLY don't want to set it up that way, that it's awfully easy to give the answer you don't mean to. She said that I wouldn't believe how many people hit No and I said that I could well believe it since I had nearly done it. We were very amused about it all; hope the people who hit No are, too.
    This WAS going to be about how magnificent my beef stew is and how my half-assing in the kitchen is getting completely out of hand and how I really have to start writing down what I do so I can replicate these outstanding results. Then I realized that all I did that I don't usually do is put in Trader Joe's Green Dragon hot sauce and McCormick's Gourmet Collection garam masala blend. I may have put in a little more turmeric than usual, but let's face it, turmeric doesn't add much taste. So there you have it: green dragon and garam masala. Magic!
    I just pointed my finger at Amelia and said bang and she ran away. I said, "I didn't really shoot you!" I'm not sure which one of us is the drama queen.
    Dreams last night were weird and detailed but I remember very little. The really odd thing was being on the beach with a woman's voice complaining about the poor quality of the shelling. This should have reflected something from old-time radio, but I just can't remember anything like that ever coming up, nor why it ever would. Then of course a gazillion ants came from nowhere and I was no longer worried about someone else's complaints about shelling. Just damn odd.

Toy isn't well either

    My cold is getting better. My drone is not so well. Mainly, the Krazy Glue repairs have failed utterly. The blade guards are flying around instead of the drone itself; they get in the way of the blades and the motors shut down. So I'll have to follow the advice of my online friends and remove the blade guards. Considering my proclivity for crashes, one expects that the life expectancy of Toy can be measured in minutes. I will check in a hobby store for spare parts; it's likely to rain for the next several days so flying is not too likely too soon.
    I got to see my friend Walt for the first time in ages. I also demonstrated the drone for him, such as it is. It mainly hovered near the ground and fell over a lot, but did get off the ground well and truly once and did ok one or two other times. This is highly reminiscent of the previous drone, which seemed to get moods and then get over them for no apparent reason. Gremlins maybe. Walt lost his house in the flood but is holding up pretty well so far.

Further microscopically detailed dreams

    Don't worry; I don't remember much. It was a library with new policies. The reading room now was rented to you like a parking place, ten cents at a time. And I'm counting my change with great specificity. As I've mentioned, my dreams are usually non-visual, so it's a surprise when I'm seeing things accurately. Pity it was nothing more interesting than coins. Then I dropped a dime and chased it, by which time I was outside on the pavement. Then I was back inside but unable to find the reading rooms, which were either on the fourth or fifth floor. As there hadn't been any upstairs floors a minute earlier, I was a little confused. Also there were some fellows talking the entire time I was going through the coin rigmarole. I assume that this was due to old-time radio playing in the background as I slept.
    Now I fully understand that this isn't the most riveting anecdote in history. I'm just puzzled by it is all. It doesn't seem to have any relation with reality; it doesn't seem to have anything with processing events, emotions or anything really. It isn't a useful suggestion for how to run a library. Puzzling is what it is.

Living Years

    I should probably first apologize for the earworm. Sorry! Second, if I posted this already, double sorry. I remember mentioning it on Facebook, but I don't think I have here, but my memory is affected by cold virus. All apologies where appropriate.
    The other week/month (time slips away), I heard "The Living Years" by Mike + the Mechanics for the first time this year. I hadn't been dreading it exactly, but back when Dad was alive and I would hear it, I would wonder how I would react. It was roughly what I would have expected. I cried a bit, but not out of regret for anything unsaid. Just because I miss him and wish he were back. So that's OK.
    Since then, in the way of radio since the '80s, it's been on heavy rotation a bit, so I've heard it another two times. Both times there was no tears or sadness, just a kind of rueful smile. That and a tendency to want to lampoon the lyrics. These ARE the same guys who did a song called "Silent Running" with the refrain, "Can you hear me? Can you hear me running?" And you want to say, "DO YOU PEOPLE KNOW WHAT 'SILENT' MEANS?!" Anyway.

Memory and happiness

    I've had this topic at the top of my Notepad for months. I can't get it clear in my mind, perhaps obviously. The idea though is in line with the truism that older people are happier because bad memories recede. Well maybe we aren't happier but we do tend to go on about the good old days, and tend to forget about the bad old ones. I'm wondering if this is in any way connected to Alzheimer's and I'm wondering if there's any evolutionary pressure to have happy old people around.
    I guess it would be good for the species to have elders who are considered wise, and it might be easier to consider us wise if we're comparatively happy-go-lucky. Moreover, we might be more useful if we're able to share good things from the past that might be applied in the present. Of course, in the current political climate, it would be helpful if some old people would point out that the Trumps of the world are trotting out the same arguments that led to ships full of Jewish refugees being turned away and sent back to the Holocaust. So there are limits to the argument.
    What I'm mainly wondering is whether Alzheimer's or other forms of senile dementia are just an extension of natural memory loss. And then there's the question whether the kind of memory loss I'm talking about in elders (i.e., focusing on the happy ones) is a physical problem or a decision. Maybe as you get older, you just decide to define yourself as happy and thus to filter out the unhappy memories. I don't know. My memory, like the rest of me, doesn't have a lot in the way of filters. Gradually the unhappy memories have less sharp teeth. But they're still there, they're still there.

It's still yesterday, believe me

    I missed yesterday's entry due to being sick. It's not exactly the worst illness ever, but is whacking me over the head a bit, hence missing things like blog entries. Yesterday, it was a burning sore throat. Today, the throat has improved a bit and symptoms have moved into the boogers boogers boogers stage. And that was before I drank or ate anything. Eating breakfast now and expecting some drama as the day wears on.
    I'm skipping Thanksgiving totally or at least postponing it. I don't think interacting with other people would be the most thoughtful thing ever. I think I'll ask William if we can put it off until Monday or so. I will try to take a bath eventually at least.
    Yesterday I did take the printed version of one of my drone pictures over to Devon around the block who asked for it and also demonstrated the drone. I managed to crash it in someone's yard but they weren't home so I recovered it without gunfire or conflict. The Krazy Glue repairs didn't hold so I did it again; I don't think they'll hold this time either. Prop guards have very awkward fracture lines. Well, the Krazy Glue will dry up eventually anyway; might as well use it up instead.
    Right, that was yesterday's post; today's is coming up. Happy Thanksgiving either way!

Crash!

    Today was another nice day, if cold, so I took the toy through its paces at nearby Pacific Park. Didn't I just say that all the experts were telling me to take off the blade guards because they create huge wind resistance? Yes I did. Boy does that not seem like such a good idea! I had a crash or two today. None were anything I took very seriously; toy operated fine afterwards. However, two of the blade guards were split along one (of three) arms. I may be an idiot, but I suspect that without the guards, those would have been the blades all broky and useless. Mind you, I have extra blades, but they were a pain to put on and I have to assume that they would be a pain to take off, too. I don't have extra blade guards, but I do have super glue. 1,001 uses!
    If you thought that was dull, you should have seen my alternate topics! I finally went back to play Civilization IV without the expansion packs. To make a long story short, I was correct that the starter level was much, much easier on the basic game than after expansion. But a lot of the stuff that was added in the expansions is sorely missed. Still, it's much more of an edge of the seat game, even in spite of being very easy. I appreciate that that makes no sense, but there you go. There's a lot more stuff to do I guess is what it is.
    Also my dreams were as ever very odd last night, but you catch a break since I can't much remember them. The bewildering part was that I was sort of on a major league sports team but sort of a coach or sort of otherwise connected with them. Apparently my job was to keep their wildest player in line. I guess my brain woke up enough to say, You're 53; other than bowling, you're not getting on any major league team. Or something.

Toy test flight

    We finally got clear, dry weather today. Although it's both cold and breezy, still it was a nice day to take out the quadcopter. So I did.
    A good place to fly is a very underused park called Southeast Park. As it isn't exactly photogenic, I thought I would be able to forebear from using the camera and instead practice flying. I did do the latter but failed to do the former. The pictures aren't exactly electrifying, but look about as good as the terrain permitted. I would have been happier if downtown in the distance had looked clearer, but heck, it's probably 10 miles.
    People in the Syma quadcopter discussion group on Facebook keep saying to take off the blade guards, that they catch the wind and hinder flying markedly. I guess I can trust to their greater experience, but it looks impossible to me. (The blade guards are little pieces of plastic that protect the blades slightly (on only one side each) from hard landings.) However, something is certainly catching the wind. This copter is much, much heavier than the previous ones and much more powerful, but still got carried away by the wind like crazy. So the flights weren't too long.
    I did finally learn to land without crashing at least, which is a big plus. The smaller lighter drones were easy; when you got near the ground, you just hit the control for up and it came down in a more or less guided landing. This one is so heavy and falls so fast that that trick never works. So I have to let it fall and start the controlled crash much higher up. Is tricky but fun to learn to master. I just wish we could get Indian summer back, this time without any more rain. Darn it.

I always dreaded it

    Long ago when I was newly published, I visited Costco and saw all the deep deep discount books, including some from my publisher. So I knew I would one day be on the remainder shelf, and felt deeply sad about it. Well not so much personally, but deeply sad for the novelists who poured themselves into their dream worlds and now see their stuff marked down 90% at Costco.
    Today I experienced something similar, finding my hiking book at Goodwill. I mean heck, it's been 17 years, and there is another edition and everything. I must say I wasn't very blue about it. It was just a big giggle. I took a picture and posted it on Facebook ("I'm in Goodwill! I'm in Goodwill!") and Paul's mom, with whom I'm Facebook friends, saw it and asked for it. So I had an excuse to buy it, but Paul was nice enough to pick it up for me.
    Being kind of humble, it never occurred to me that she might want it signed. Only later when ex-girlfriend Susan (who took some of the pictures, mainly the ones where I'm wearing a beard) said she was still waiting for her signed copy did I think that somebody might actually want one. Well I have a pen and it's some days until Thanksgiving, so I imagine we can manage this. I PROBABLY still know how to sign my name!

And another thing

    As I mentioned, I somehow skipped another blog entry, so here's another extra one. It may not be too electrifying either. Harry the cat got in a huge fight last night. Anyway a noisy one. When I went out and hollered, he came running with another cat in pursuit. I hollered again and the other cat gave up and went away. Harry had gone up on the roof.
    I wonder if he was trying to protect us by going up to the roof instead of going through the open door. In here is much safer than the roof is. On the other hand when you're little and fast and good at climbing, I guess the first choice is to go up.
    He stayed up there for a while, but came down when I was ready to go to bed. It's funny that he happened to come in when I turned the lights out. "I don't want the other kitty to see me!" Well I thought it was funny. He was pretty subdued all night and all morning, but seems none the worse for wear. He was outside most of the day and doesn't seem to have gotten into any further tussles. It's rained all evening, so he's more or less willing to stay inside, although he's agitating for something at the moment. Probably sees a millimeter of space at the bottom of the food bowl.

Still dumb

    This would be a longer entry, but Downtown U. managed to lose a football game to The Citadel. Wherever you live, just think about the biggest college losing to one of the littlest colleges. At home. Frustrating. So one-word sentences may predominate.
    The new dumb thing is dumb indeed, but I can't make myself feel bad about it. For years now, I've kept the laundry detergent on top of the washer-dryer. This seemed reasonable, or anyway not crazy. Today I ran out of detergent and noticed this brown crud on the bottom of the bottle. So I checked the top of the dryer. The brown crud looked like rust, but smelled like bad fish. So the message is this: don't leave your laundry detergent on top of a non-enameled metal surface. Ew! Anyway, I wiped off as much of the gick as I could, then wiped it down with a wet paper towel with bleach on it. So hopefully whatever germs were up there have been killed. Why laundry detergent would feed germs I don't know.

Spaghettification complete

    It's odd, probably only to me, but it's still odd how long it's taken me to get back to what I consider my normal life after the flood. I'm finally just about there, which is nice, again at least to me. I made spaghetti for I think the first time in a month. I still haven't gone back to my go-to lunch, vegan chili, though I'll probably do so Monday. And THEN I'll start feeling normal. Ish.
    Funny how I did an extra blog entry to catch back up and then immediately missed another day. So now I'll probably double up again just to prove how retentive one person can be. But I'm just not feeling that fluent right now, and am all out of zany dreams. A little bummed that I still haven't done the forms for getting my brother's money, but I swear I'll get on it. Soon. Hopefully not late.

Oh stormy

    So there were incredibly noisy (if not exactly violent) storms overnight. However, my brain did not wish to be awakened. Thus when the rains were loudest, my brain sunk me into a dream where I was living in a store at a mall and the person living in the next store over was Jack Black. His employers, whether in the real life movie industry or in a dream life mall industry, were very very unhappy with him. Shoot missiles at him unhappy with him in fact. But the missiles hit my store instead, destroying my car.
    Now in the midst of this dream I woke up enough to realize that what I was hearing was actually a king hell rain storm. But I was kind of digging the dream and wanted to know how it turned out, so I went back under. This is kind of strange because in the dream I was mad as hell that my car was burned up; usually I'm glad to get an excuse to wake up out of heavy anger.
    I dreamed on to the extent that I would want to go somewhere and then realize that I had to walk there, but I'm not sure I ever learned any more about Jack Black and his battle with mall management. Gee, I hope he's OK!

TOOOOOOOYYYYYYYY!

    My wonderful sister sent me a new quadcopter, this one of a different type. My reasoning was that the Syma X5C I had before, while very awesome, tended to burn out its motors quickly. To replace them, you have to take up soldering, which is not my idea of fun. This one has motors that are connected by plugs. Not that getting to the plugs is likely to be a picnic (just putting together the largely already assembled copter took me 2 hours or so, as against the 15 minutes by the dreaded People On The Internet).
    This one, the Syma X8C, is much more powerful, much larger, and much heavier. It hurts a lot more if it falls on you and it draws blood if the spinning blades hit you. (I found out the latter the hard way.) So probably not the ideal choice for an idiot like me. It isn't safe to take into popular play areas, parks or schoolgrounds. This instantly sucks a lot of the fun out of it. On the other hand, I just got it and have barely flown it. (Weather, though not rainy, has been cloudy and windy and also not much fun.) So perhaps when I master it, I'll be less worried about making cole slaw out of the citizenry.
    The camera is bigger and better mounted, so hopefully there will be good pictures when there is better weather to photograph. On the whole, I think it's going to be a blast.
    Meanwhile, awesome sister outdid herself by also sending me a Swiss Army chef's knife and case. I mean, how can you learn of the existence of a Swiss Army chef's knife and not have one? I would be delighted to report that it has many attachments including a whistle, but alas, it's just a very, very, very good chef's knife. It's an open quesion whether it's better for peeling potatoes than for other applications. I am most abundantly grateful for this as well as for the toy.

Answer: Pretty bad

    Well, yesterday's pecan pie recipe didn't quite work out. Oddly, it wasn't so much the substitutions I made but the conversion calculations I didn't make. The peanut flour didn't taste unpleasant nor do I believe that peanut butter is all that different from cashew. However, using dried dates rather than fresh pitted ones, though probably not a culinary sin in itself, meant that I should have found out how many cups of dried equal how many fresh. I couldn't find it on the Internet and thus winged it. For that reason or for another (like, it wasn't a very good recipe), I made a pie that is pleasant enough unless say you're expecting an actual pecan pie. Still, I would do it again except that I already gave away the maple syrup. (What can I say? I don't use maple syrup at all ever. I don't dislike it; I just never use any.)
    So bummer drag. I wish it had been great so that I would have a go-to pecan pie recipe. The PS on maple syrup, though, is that I can't think of anything maple-y about traditional pecan pie either. So maybe I'll do it again with more honey. Yes!

How bad CAN it be?

    Half-assing my way through life and cooking, I'm surprised again and again how often I accidentally produce something that I would be willing to pay a lot of money for in a restaurant. It must be obvious by now that my philosophy of cooking is to use good ingredients and then just say, "How bad CAN it be?" Today is pie night at the celiacs group. While it's an open question whether anyone will show up, the very suggestion of pie night made me want to make some kind of pecan pie. This is pretty tricky for a guy who is celiac and doesn't eat GMO corn products. But I found a recipe.
    The thing about the recipe is that it was written by someone who must be a billionairess. Either that or we're having a desperate worldwide cashew shortage. Because she called for a jar of cashew butter, which turns out to be $20! Thus I substituted peanut butter. Sue me. Also I couldn't find almond flour and had no confidence that my equipment would turn almonds into flour like she suggested. I found peanut flour on sale and got that instead. (Also past the best by date, so if anyone has any peanut flour recipes, I'd LOVE to hear them.) So it's a darn peanutty pecan pie. I haven't tried it yet. But how bad can it be?

Rocket science again

    Broken record, aren't I? So today's mad Goodwill purchase was 2 enormous Fisher speakers for just under $10. Enormous as in 3 feet high. The receiver that I bought on another Goodwill junket earlier in the year connects to speakers using plugs. These speakers though connect via stripped wires. So I can cut the plugs off the connectors the receiver already has, I can get some cables with exposed wire and a couple of plugs that I can connect one end of each to, or I can buy another $5 receiver with the same kind of contacts. (This is a very '80s-sounding blog entry, isn't it?)
    Fortunately, in a world without Radio Shack, I know where to go for cables and connections. (They're called Cables and Connections.) But I still feel like an idiot for not remembering how the receiver connects, fully realizing that this is silly, that nobody would. But still.
    Last night, I had this very, very, very vivid dream that there was a flashing red light just above and outside my bedroom window and I was extremely pissed at the landlord for putting it there. I had to wake up to get over it. I assume this had something to do with morning breaking, although that doesn't look much like flashing red lights. As the lot on that side is vacant, I'm reasonably sure there was no fire truck there, but anything is possible. I still think it's funny, though.

3D as in dumb

    One dumb thing was that I turned on the front burner when meaning to use the back, thus burning up my ceramic saucepot. Amelia tried to tell me that I had, but I just thought she wanted to play. Dumb also was not cleaning or renewing the theoretically nonstick pot properly but just heating up lunch in it. I did put oil in it first, though, which leads to the 3D dumb thing. Because it was GREAT! AWESOME! Borderline unforgettable. And the dumb thing is that I've never done this before. I always added water in hopes of keeping reheated food from sticking. I wasn't even trying to eat low-fat; the rationale, such as it was, was that there's already oil in the food. Why add more?
    Mind you, this was a rice dish, so reinventing fried rice could be expected to be really good. I'll try it again with future leftovers. At worst, it ought to help a not very nonstick pot stick less. But I hope it's crazy mad delicious every time.

Make! Me! Stop!

    I'm grumpier than I need to me because I keep playing Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword and it keeps being no fun. That is it's crazy fun up to a point and then something annoying and frustrating happens to make the map I'm playing no longer fun. So a waste of time even within the context of wasting time. I do not understand why anyone would release a game where at the lowest difficulty setting anything particularly bad can happen. These guys have been programming a long time; they must know that somebody out there wants a sandbox setting. Well I do at least. Still addicted, though; I WISH I could quit any time I want, but that seems to be a dream.
    The really childish thing is that I could go back to regular Civ IV, which was much easier, but that requires me to keep the CD in the drive. For some reason, this annoys me abundantly. I'll try to get over it; then I can be addicted to something that is at least consistently fun. If, as I recall, boring at the end.
    Downtown U. has a home football game tomorrow at noon, meaning that I'll be under house arrest most of the day unless I can rent a helicopter real fast. This however only affects grumpiness if we lose the game. Snakebit as this team is, that is not unlikely. Tomorrow I resolve to blog about puppies and kittens regardless.

Ollie's Ollie's Ollie's

    The last time it happened I wasn't too upset and this time I'm not either. Ollie's is a discount outlet like Big Lots/Odd Lots. They send out an advertising circular on Tuesdays which says that the items in the ad will be in the store no later than Thursday morning. Implied but not stated is that they likely will be in the store before Thursday and already gone by then.
    Twice now they've had a camera quad copter for $60; the picture looked a lot like my Syma X5C but the brand name looked suspiciously unfamiliar. The first time, I missed the Thursday part, went out on Tuesday, found nothing, looked at the circular again, went out on Friday and was told they were sold out. This time, though, I was there at 9 sharp, opening time, this morning. Sold out already. I must confess to being more than a little relieved, as I'm pretty sure these are the ones with the really REALLY bad reviews on Amazon. I was hoping both times though that they would turn out to be the styrofoam ones (the ones with the really really REALLY bad reviews) just for comedy purposes. Ah well. Maybe next time I'll phone on Wednesday afternoon.
    Also in the circular and the real reason I went was a cat toy AS SEEN ON TV that every cat will play with. And I tell you what: they dug the heck out of it for an hour or so. It's called Cat's Meow. It's a disc with a wand sticking out. The wand goes around and around, back and forth, pretty much randomly. It's under a cloth skirt so it's both somewhat hidden and it makes cool mousy type noises on the fabric. Both cats were fascinated, although the appeal waxed and waned. Once they found out that they could catch the wand, they were a bit less captivated. It cost $8, though the three C batteries cost nearly that much. But hey-- kitties having a good time is worth anything, right?

It stopped raining! It stopped raining!

    That's it, really. Is there anything else that needs to be said?
    It stopped yesterday, and the sun came out, and we were crazy happy. This morning you could tell by the brightness that the sun was out, but it was incredibly foggy. After an hour or so, though, it was all burned off. I started singing and dancing at random, which is not usual, but then a month of rain isn't, either.
    The last thing I'll say about the weather (I hope!) is that all this clearness doesn't exactly bring down the indoor humidity. It's fairly warm in here by the thermometer, but I'm in a sweater and knit camp because it's so dank. This is the time of year that I would usually have to bring out the humidifier soon. Instead I may finally buy the dehumidifier I've been threatening to get for year. I hope we get a chance to dry out finally!

And then there are the memories that are simpler to pretend were dreams

    Let's see, how to go about this. My siblings were born in 1951, '52, '53, then there was a gap until '59; finally I came along in 1962. The first bunch went to parochial school but when Frank came to school age, he was having none of nuns. So he and I went to Heathwood Hall Episcopal School for a while. Therefore, we also went to CCD (Catholic Sunday school, on Wednesdays of course) also for a while. I made it to third grade, when I found out that goofing off on my own was WAY more fun.
    Because I'm talking about Catholic stuff and childhood memories and am male, you may be thinking that this is about some horrible event. But it's just weird. I did make it as far as First Holy Communion. I remember usually being paired with another boy, and he was the weird part. He had some paste or pastes, or mustard and ketchup, coming from his mouth. Or he was a robot and his fluids were leaking. I remember that it was always there and that it looked like mustard and ketchup, and I seem to remember him sucking it up from time to time. I have no recollection of how long Communion instruction took, nor how much of the time I was actually paired with him. I remember some class room time, mainly because I remember sampling matzoh and grape juice there. I suspect that I was only paired with him for a rehearsal and for the actual communion with the monsignor. So maybe it was as seldom as once and he had had a sandwich and was a very sloppy eater. I've been bewildered about it for 40-odd years now. I still think he was a robot.

Shoulder

    Nothing major. I have a knack for having aches and pains in great profusion, but none of them rating more than about 1/2 on a scale of one to ten. But this has been a nagging one. My left shoulder has been bugging me nearly all the time for the past month and more. Of course it would be the left one (which makes hypochondriacs of a certain age think "Heart attack!) but it's no big deal. I did eventually notice that it gets bad when it rains and magically goes away when it doesn't rain. And that was all the point of the story. You know you're getting old when stuff starts hurting when it rains. Darn it!

The battle against bro' country

    I don't know if I ever blogged about it but I've definitely mentioned it in real life and on Facebook: about a year ago, Goodwill went nuts and started playing some of the best music ever, all the time. Like a really, really reliable oldies station, playing nearly all '60s and '70s R&B. I found myself hanging out in Goodwill on purpose to listen to the music.
    Fast forward to now and they've lost their minds in the other direction. Only one store plays R&B anymore; mostly their playing other oldies, but less old and less good. A couple of stores, however, are playing new stuff. Awful, awful, awful new stuff. Mostly something called bro' country. One song was so bad we had to look it up, and there we learned of bro' country and the wonders of Georgia Florida Line. (I'm not upset if I got that backwards.) Worst thing is that this had been the best store until they started playing horrifyingly bad music. I found myself dreading going there.
    (Subtext is: does this mean that they're trying to run off black customers? I really have no idea. It's a very uncomfortable idea and I hope they're just being dumb in the sense of choosing bad music, not suicidally dumb in the sense of choosing bad music with an agenda. Eventually, I'm going to ask if there's any way to go back to the good music.)
    Today, though, I cut the gordian knot most readily; I brought my iPod. Play a crappy song; I drown it out! I told Paul to wave his hand in front of my eyes if he needed my attention. It did make the visit much much more pleasant. Hey look at me! All problem solvy!

Forgive another writing exercise

    Yesterday on Facebook, I said that one good thing about all this rain is that it's been good for the tea olives, and that's true. It seems like the tea olives (a tree with tiny sweet-smelling flowers, flowers so tiny it used to make me crazy trying to find where that smell was coming from) in the neighborhood have never been blooming (thus fragrant) this often. Bu-ut the rain seems to be helping in another dimension, and I don't quite know how to word it.
    The humidity seems to make the smell spread farther. Does humid air carry scents better? Does bad weather make you seek out nice smells harder to make up for grey skies? Does more rain make the flowers bloom harder? Does humidity carry pollen better? I don't know! But what I'm trying to say, I think, is that frequent rains make tea olive (and presumably all flowering plants) bloom more frequently and high humidity seems to make their scent more powerful. Might be my imagination, but I love it regardless!
    In wacky weather news, we're almost at air conditioner need today, whereas it's supposed to go down to 40 by Monday. People always say, "If you don't like the weather in _________, wait a minute," but I think Columbia is living up to it this week!

Sun break

    My friend Terry, the famous Irish president-greeter, told me that Seattle offices will shut down and take sun breaks when the sun actually comes out during cloudy seasons. Perhaps he was winding up. Lately, though, I could easily believe it. Today, I was in no mood for more effing clouds and rain. Right from the first. I woke up from the daylight in spite of my sleep mask, so I was absolutely sure it must be brilliantly sunny outside. But no! Furthest thing in fact.
    I wish I could call it the result of superior planning, but it was just the result of farting around all day. However, when I finally went out to take my walk, I was shocked, even bewildered, that the sun was out. Sort of. Enough. So I announced it on Facebook. And people actually ran out and took pictures. And dug my picture. This is an indication of how much it's been raining lately.
    On the whole, I feel a little robbed. Normally, November in Columbia is crazy sunny and beautiful. Cool, but still with flowers. Chamber of Commerce type weather. That's been in short supply lately. Any day, they'll be changing the tourism slogan from Famously Hot to Famously Wet. It'll be great!

Chucks

    Are there no more Chucks in the world? What has happened to the Chucks, and who is responsible? I'm thinking Chuck Norris. Maybe it's the Internet Chuck Norris = Superman type jokes, but I think he was the last of the Chucks. When I was a lad, the land was awash in Chucks. From Chuck Howley to Chuck Taylor, from Chuck Noll to Chuck Tanner (not far; that's what started this: did a couple of Chucks really make Pittsburgh the City of Champions?). Chuck Daly, Chuck Connors. You'd think there'd be a quarterback Chuck, but I can only think of baseball and basketball Chucks (apart from Howley).
    Google does refresh my memory about a current Chuck, as well as confirms that the Chuck quarterbacks were pretty obscure. The current one is coach Pagano; maybe THERE'S your problem!

Checks

    Lately I can't write checks. I already mentioned writing very large ones where I wrote the numbers-in-words line wrong (apparently). More recently, I wrote the checks fine; I just sent the rent check to T-Mobile and the T-Mobile check to my landlord. The latter came around to let me know, so I give him a correct check. I called T-Mobile and the robot said that they had received my check for (amount of rent). Now maybe they just process checks by putting them through an electronic reader that gets the routing number and account number and then they just type in the amount. If so, that's OK. But if they do it at all the old-fashioned way, the bank will not be best-pleased. Therefore, I called this morning, spoke to an actual human, read off my routing and account number, and paid the actual amount due. If I wind up way ahead, I can live with it. I was also glad that I had followed Dad's procedure of paying a week in advance; the second payment wasn't even late!
    So while this is a happy ending, I'm starting to worry about my brain function. I hope it's just a matter of cat dander allergies acting up due to not vacuuming often enough (due to all this damned rain keeping both kitties inside, and I figure vacuuming with both in would incite a riot). I did vacuum today, so hopefully I start thinking clearer. Ly. Er. Early onset dementia is not really something I had planned on, and would rather not. Maybe it'll cause me to speed up setting up online bill paying at least. That would probably be a good thing.

All I want to talk about is lentils, man

    But it isn't lentils, really. I go on and on about how dumb I am and how obtuse at grasping the very, very, very obvious, but usually I'm mostly kidding. However, it's a matter of awe to me that I couldn't figure out the simple concept of flavoring everything. If you're going to eat mostly rice, beans and steamed vegetables, rather than just flavor the chicken or beef or whatever you're mixing in with the rice, beans and vegetables, how much smarter is it to spice up the other three, that make up the bulk of the dish? How could I not figure this out before. No matter, I've got it figured out now. It may be time finally to reopen the test kitchen!
    As to lentils, I made the same thing I made the other day which turned out so well but this time added a little (flavored) brown rice. The during taste was less wonderful but the aftertaste was outstanding. I think I could be said to be a fan of cloves. And I think lentils carry flavors better than other, uh, I think they're legumes. Basically, I'm making a dal (dahl) that could pass for hummus. I'm about ready to live on it.

Glub glub

    I believe I've mentioned already that since the flood, I at least have a slight degree of panic every time it rains. My rational mind, though, gets that a thousand-year flood is fairly unlikely to be repeated in one month. However... forecasters are suggesting that this batch of rain might again lead to historic flooding. At least they're not suggesting it's a lead-pipe cinch like they did last time. Monitoring weather radio (via TV, of course) suggests that while flooding is possible, the worst we're likely to get is the usual flash floods, not neighborhoods wiped out like last time.
    Still, you can probably imagine that if regular rain is a little nerve-wracking, another frog-strangler (apparently that's supposed to be toad-choker, but frog-strangler just sounds so much more dramatic) so soon is a lot more than anyone here needs. Well, except for the mosquitos. They're probably having a big party!

Grasp of the extremely obvious still touch and go

    I made one of my go to meals, basically lentils, vegetables, onions, garlic, cloves, cumin, salt and pepper. I was wondering a) why it was so crazy delicious and b) why it made so little. The obvious answer: I usually put this over brown rice. Lots of brown rice. Now, you can call that a senior moment (I don't mind) but then, everything's a learning experience. Maybe I need to flavor up my rice some more. Cooking it in broth was one good idea, but more spice is a good thing. It seems that something yellow is traditional.
    Anyway, it WAS crazy delicious, so there's that! I guess more onions, garlic, cloves, cumin, salt and pepper is never a bad thing.

Freedom cat and prison cat

    One of these cats ranges freely and makes trouble in the neighborhood. One of these cats isn't allowed out and makes trouble in the house. One feels sad about Amelia's restricted life, but she never even tried to go outside until Harry came around. And when she does try to go out, she never goes past the porch. I suspect that she is only unhappy with the indoor life insofar as she has to share it with Harry.
    On the other hand, since I live a largely inside life myself, it would be easy to be jealous of Harry's life. Granted, I would skip the killing and eating things though. ("Dude! There's somebody who wants to feed you all. the. time. You don't have to kill or eat things!") Still, I seem to be having a pretty good time as an indoorsman, and now that most of my trails are open again, I'm starting to feel a little more normal. Also I don't have Harry's tree-climbing ability.
    Someday, I want a home with such cool climbing stuff that the cats don't want to go outside. Then I'll go! In the meantime, I think I'm maintaining a good enough balance that I'm not jealous of either of them. Much.

Flood victims need candy!

    I went to Publix for some odds and ends and to buy Hallowe'en candy. The latter wasn't a high priority item, since most years nobody shows up to trick-or-treat. (The sign on the fence reading, "Please be careful of the minefield" couldn't have ANYthing to do with it!) And I found that there wasn't hardly any. The manager happened by and we commiserated. During the flood, he said, they had all that candy in back and they were kind of sweating it, thinking they'd be stuck with it all. But apparently that isn't the case. I don't think we all decided that this is going to be an expecially heavy trick-or-treat year; I bet a lot of it went down gullets. Regardless, though they were tragically out of Baby Ruths (THE VERY IDEA!), they still had peanut M&Ms. Heck, even though I can't eat this stuff anymore I still like getting things I used to like. I'll probably be giving it all to Paul Sunday anyway. I was expecting to be texting him to ask about his preference, but peanut M&Ms were pretty much the only really good thing left. As ever, I'm not kidding myself that this is of any consequence; just a little weird.

Well golly!

    Actually it was "Jesus Christ!", but that probably isn't cool for an entry title and I used "Eeeek!" yesterday. I went to West Columbia Riverwalk today. I was well-pleased to find it open and that the amphitheater was unhurt other than missing a stage. (For all I know it may have been dismantled before the flood; it wasn't all that elaborate.) I got down to the Gervais Street Bridge and saw signs that the boardwalk north of there was closed. Then I saw why; it was largely gone. So I was trying to get the perfect juxtaposition of Trail Closed sign with trail actually being nonexistent and was backing and circling and looked behind me and saw a banana spider the size of my hand.
    This was when I said, "Jesus Christ!" And no, it wasn't the size of my hand. Nor was it a banana spider, strictly speaking, but a golden-silk orb weaver, which we-uns call banana spiders because of the shape of their heads. (In the rest of the world, banana spiders are tarantulas that are found on bananas.) She was the size of my palm, though, if you include her legs but not my fingers. She took a pretty alarming picture also with the Trail Closed sign included, suggesting that she did it.
    There was an art teacher and some art students at the next picnic table along. I had to show somebody the picture, so I did. Twenty feet away, you could still clearly see the effing spider. He went to investigate, so I guess I did right to tell him.

Eeeek!

    This WAS going to be about how it's been a month since the flood and I'm just getting to walk on my favorite trail (well, legally) and I'm just finally making spaghetti again. But then I walked on my favorite trail and got carried out to sea by mosquitoes. The odd thing is that when I walked there the other week when it looked open but wasn't, I had no problem with mosquitoes. This indicates that the little bloodsuckers were maybe engendered more by the more recent set of rains than by the actual flood. Or possibly that I'm getting more attractive. Or alert.
    So the point was going to be, not in any critical way, that it's amazing that it took so long to clean up from nothing but water. And the point actually is that, you know, they could have dragged their feet a little bit. That trail didn't need to be open yet after all. (Just kidding; yes it did. And they did a great job.)

Very damn funny

    Mr. John D. MacDonald wrote a great many novels and stories during the '50s and early '60s. Then in 1964 he started the Travis McGee series and started seriously printing money. I never noticed before that he took 1967 off from Travis. Friday, Paul found a John D. I hadn't seen or heard of before for me at Goodwill. It turns out to be the 1967 John D, The Last One Left. He dedicates it to Travis McGee. It centers around a boat called the Munequita. When Travis returns in 1968, he has a new small boat to go with his barge-type houseboat and his Rolls-Royce pickup (just don't even ask) called-- the Munequita. Very damn funny, John D.! Travis does say he bought her at an estate sale and that the previous owner, a man named Kayd ran out of luck out Bahamas way, which is the plot of The Last One Left in a nutshell.
    The title threw me off completely, since he had published collections of his stories under titles "The Good Old Stuff" and "More Good Old Stuff." I figured "Last One Left" completed the trilogy. It was such a very pleasant surprise that it was a novel instead!
    I had many wild, weird, violent, unpleasant dreams last night. You're probably almost as glad as I am that I don't remember hardly anything. There was some instance where I tried someone's coffee and had to spit out a plank and wire. I think that was the relatively pleasant part.

Hiky stuff!

    Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy! This will mostly be a very Columbia, SC centric post, so if you aren't from here, you can bail after the next sentence. Most of my favorite trails have reopened. Yaaaaaay! (Well, you should have stayed for that at least.) Let's see, Canal Park is still closed as is West Columbia Riverwalk. But the central part of Cayce Riverwalk is open. What they call Phase 2 was closed before the flood and is still. That's a favorite place, but at least not something we lost from the flood.
    Old State Road had been closed since the flood and is open again. Reached from there, Phase 3 of Cayce Riverwalk is still closed but Phase 4, reached from Newman Landing is open. Newman Landing isn't, though. Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve is closed but their lot is open, which allows one to walk on the unpaved, closed to vehicle traffic part of Old State Road. This is good, because it connects to Timmerman Trail, which is OPEN!
    So to sum up for those who aren't from here but slogged through anyway, about half of my favorite hiking places are open again, especially the big ones. I was digging walking around in Olympia instead (especially as the tea olive was blooming again) but it's good to have the chance for a little variety. Yaaaaaay!

English to kitty dictionary needed

    As I'm sure I've mentioned before, there is a disagreement of very long standing between Amelia and me regarding the meaning of the phrase, "No kitties on the table!" It's possible that Amelia understands me perfectly except for the "no" part, of course. More recently, there is a similar disagreement between Harry and me regarding the meaning of "Your food bowl is full." It is a truism that is also true that if the cat can see a molecule of porcelain through the kibbles, it isn't full. Amelia has gotten over this years ago, but Harry is a much more dedicated whinybutt.
    Today, the other English problem between me and Harry came up again, the one that makes no sense. That is his failure to understand, "Don't follow me." Don't get me wrong, I would love it if he would follow me on a walk and enjoy it, but he hates it, whines all the way, and yet comes along anyway. So this time I chased him and he ran away a little way, but when I turned around he followed me again. So I went home and he actually went in (which he doesn't always do) and the problem was solved. In future, I'll just Meow at them!

I love it when they understand what I meant...

    rather than what I said. Went to the barber, got all that mess cut off. People were actually telling me it looked good longish, but it was taking two hours to air dry. During the cold snap, that was not acceptable. (This not being the '70s, I'm not buying a blow dryer.) He charged $10; I gave him a $20 and two ones and told him to give me $8 back. Fortunately, he understood what I meant, rather than what I said and gave me a $10 back. I know it's of no importance, but I LOVE it when that happens. Rather, I would if it had ever happened before. So yay.
    Also, now I have an excuse to wear my fake Russian hat. Double yay. This has been a very quiet day, mainly devoted to laundry. My eyes and breathing are awful even though I vacuumed only a couple of days ago, so I vacuumed again. And ran all bedclothes through the dryer for ten minutes. If this doesn't work, I'll have to make the kitties into sweaters. Just the fur!

I won I won I wo-on!

    (Wuh-uhn? Whatever!) Jackson Browne is coming to town early next year towards the start of his solo acoustic tour and the local radio stations have been giving away tickets including, inexplicably, the morning sports show that I listen to. I won't say that I had a premonition or anything, just a feeling that I ought to be ready when the giveaway happened this morning, since I hadn't been earlier in the week. So I found the station's phone number and punched it into the smart phone, ready to hit Dial when they asked the question. They did and I did and I heard ringing instead of a busy signal.
    Now I got this far on a giveaway of Paul McCartney tickets earlier this year, but the first caller answered correctly and that was that. This time, though, the first caller flopped. The question was, "This SEC school got its school colors from Harvard and Yale." I actually remember Tommy saying this on the show some time in the past, but it also helped to know those schools' colors. The first caller knew Harvard's and thus guessed Alabama. I both remembered and knew anyway: Ole Miss. Winner winner, Runnin' on Empty dinner!
    The contest was fun, not a bit nerve-wracking. The only hard part is realizing that you're actually on the air. (I joined the legions of callers sounding like idiots by saying, "Is that me?") The slightly nerve-wracking part was after, because they had a problem with their phone lines in that we couldn't get rid of the studio feed so I couldn't hear the producer and she couldn't hear me. But she got my number and promised to call me back and did a few minutes after the show ended and they have all my contact information.
    It's a little odd winning a prize that doesn't exist yet. (That's why they needed contact information; normally you just show up at the studio.) Tickets won't be printed for months, maybe, she said. But that's cool; I won I won I won!
    This being the last lunch deal day of the Fair and a perfectly gorgeous day (I think we can stop saying that it's Chamber of Commerce weather-- considering and just say that it's Chamber of Commerce weather again) so I went back. I hadn't even noticed that they have animatronic dinosaurs! They were a delight. The Fair in general was a hoot, although crowds seemed very light considering the superlative weather. I hope they pick up before it ends Sunday. (A bye week for Carolina football tomorrow should certainly help.)
    Then I went to Congaree National Park. It turns out that those very peremptory Bridge Out Ahead Detour Now type signs were just for traffic to Gadsden on the other side of the park. Roads to the park were perfectly fine, although the Mosquito Meter read 5 or Severe. I asked the first people I met on the trail, two British couples, if the mosquitoes were really severe. One gentleman said no, they were fine, while one lady said yes, they were awful! I didn't have any problems. It was very, very, very good to be back. You could barely tell anything had happened; water was about as low as it has been throughout our years long drought. It was nice to breathe clean air again. I may go back every day once the Fair is gone.

Lost in Ruritania

    I fixed the bank problem easily and quickly first thing this morning, so figuring that I had been a good boy and deserved a reward, I set out to visit Congaree National Park for the first time since the flood. Boy did that ever not work out! A mile or two past Eastway Park (a neighborhood, not a park), still 10 miles from the park (a park, not a neighborhood) there was a sign saying "Bridge out ___ miles ahead, local traffic only" and a detour that took us up to Sumter Highway (i.e., a ways). A week ago, the park posted on Facebook that Bluff Road was open all the way from Columbia to them, so I don't know if this is a new thing or if local traffic includes 10 miles. Regardless, I took the detour.
    The detour went so far, I thought I was going all the way to Sumter. We actually passed McEntire Air National Guard base (i.e., really a ways) before there was finally another detour sign routing us off of Sumter Highway. I took that and wound up on Bluff Road on the other side of road closed signs. So I was past the park and couldn't reach it this way either. It was an insanely beautiful day so I wandered around something considerable on back roads, but still couldn't get any closer. I saw some nice cows and horses and a pretty church and played an entire 80-minute CD-R. In other words, I could have gone to Charlotte.
    Still, it was a nice drive and in spite of all the closed roads it was good to see that most people out there seemed to have few problems except for closed roads. And DOT is clearly working on them hard, because I saw activity on the other side of all the road closed signs. So maybe I'll try plan A and trust the park's Facebook page and just keep going out Bluff Road tomorrow and see if I make it. Or maybe I'll put it off until another day.
    Last night, I dreamed that my mom was alive and well and living in a huge mansion with my elder cat Amelia, who was not best pleased with the arrangement, especially litter box maintenance procedures. But that was topped easily when I later dreamed that I had been tapped to run for Galactic Senate. I was puzzled as to how anybody with the Galactic Senate would have known of my existence and more so how to go about running for an office when we don't have the technology to contact any other planet, let alone an entire galaxy. I woke still puzzled, but highly delighted by the idea, which seems like a solid movie or novel plot.

That extra blog entry I warned about

    Jeez Louise am I displeased! Dad's estate is out of probate, so I was able to write all five of us substantial checks yesterday. The one I wrote to Anne had the numerals right according to the Bank of America but where I wrote out the numbers as words apparently I wrote a much, much smaller number. (I may be angry, but I'm writing carefully. If I give any details, anybody could guess about how much the checks were for, which probably is a bad idea even on a very lightly read blog.)
    I don't think I've gone that stupid yet, but at least we learn something new. I was always told that nobody actually reads the "numbers in words" line and that you could write, "Hi Mom" there if you felt like it. That turns out not to be true. And if the numbers disagree, rather than check with my bank branch, where everyone knew my intentions, they just picked the lower number. I'm sure I can clear all this up in the morning, but I'd rather be doing fun things. Like, you know, sleeping. Well, anyway, my blog is back to 365 days a year at least. So there's that.

Cooking back to normal anyway

    During the crisis, I couldn't use the water, so spaghetti was out, rice was tricky, steamed vegetables were inadvisable. I started using broth to make my rice, which turned out to be a pretty good idea. It's not quite risotto nor is it as wonderful as I would prefer, but it's pleasant. So the crisis seems to have introduced some permanent adjustments to my cooking style. I'm looking forward to spaghetti again, though, and it was a relief to use a ton of steamed vegetables instead of a couple of cans. And having my peach cobbler muffins again was as joyous as I had expected.
    Last night's dreams were almost real-life-like for a minute there. In real life I had Amelia on my legs and Harry beside me, a surprisingly peaceable kingdom, In dream life, I had a gazillion kittens but I was in an imaginary but more or less true to life building. Granted it had two basements (one with a dirt floor to make a gigantic litter box) but there were no indoor parking garages or train stations. Then an older lady of my acquaintance needed to go to the hospital so of course the house suddenly sprouted ten floors and an elevator. I hope she's all right! And the kittens!

Goin' a little psycho

    This will be brief because of the above. This laptop, the Internet, the hot spot generated by my phone, T-Mobile or Facebook-- somebody is screwing me tiresomely and endlessly. I suspect the latter. So I'm not in a good enough humor to generate good enough humor. However, I was a very, very, very good boy today and moreover could not reward myself with a long walk since all the trails I like are still closed, darn it. So I'll grant myself permission to be brief instead.

Been there, done that

    Some twenty years ago, some government entity put signs all over town near waterways reading, "The 100 year flood level at this location is..." some wholly other depth. I've also seen these in other cities, so perhaps it was the federal government. Columbians were not properly horrified, so when time and vandals brought most of the signs down, few or none went back up again. And I was just thinking that I needed to go around town, now that we've had the 1000-year flood, and get a picture of one, but figured I'd never find one.
    Today, I had a moment of less that perfect clarity and decided that since State Fair traffic had been so bad this weekend, it might be again today, so I decided to walk my electric bill over to the branch office (which is maybe a mile away) instead of driving. Really I'm not quite that crazy, but it was a beautiful day and it was a fair excuse for a long walk. On the way back, I found a 100-year flood sign, and photographed it. Once again, I'd rather be lucky than good.
    What I didn't photograph was a sign on a barbed-wire-topped fence saying that what it was protecting was a laydown yard. Just me, but I would think that if you wanted people to lay down in your yard, you would make it easier for them. People! (Eventually I will look up what a laydown yard is but whatever that might be, I still think it's funny.

Armistice ended

    The other night, I checked on Harry (outside) before I went to bed. Usually he's on the porch and ready to come in, but sometimes he isn't and this was one of those times. Harry has for his year of (mostly) living here has laid claim to my legs for sleeping purposes at night. Amelia seems to have gone along with this. This night, a couple ago, Amelia got to lay on my chest and get a good heartbeat to heartbeat kitten-mother cat experience. This may have gone to her head.
    Night before last, Amelia pretty much put on a one-cat riot while Harry more or less behaved and chased him off my legs once. Last night, it was more of a battle, and she chased him off me several times. I couldn't sleep, partly because of this, and decided to put on the TV and try to sleep in the comfy chair. That wasn't happening either. (Almost did. "Lost In Space" was on. But I couldn't get comfortable, as this was our first chilly night.) Battles continued, but fortunately, they usually settle down once my breathing slows. They are basically good kitties.
    I had the usual odd array of dreams, most of which you'll be glad to hear I've forgotten. Two oddities: instead of a huge dormitory with a built-in subway station I was in a huge law firm/home with a built-in subway station. If my subconscious mind were an architect we'd be lousy with subway stations. Other oddity was that I seemed to have many, many dreams about Boston Blackie. In fact, I only have one episode of Boston Blackie. I guess this supports the idea that one dreams in short bursts that seem hours long. Or maybe I heard the words Boston Blackie from the radio and fixated on them for the rest of the night. Odd stuff, anyway.