Silicon Valley Redneck

Odds'n'ends

So here it is Wednesday; we're planning a grocery pickup run at 0800; conditions outdoors are clear, starry, and just under 18°F; I've sprayed deicing fluid on the car windows, and plan on starting the engine early and running the defroster for a while before we head out.  I really ought to drain the windshield washer reservoir and refill with the winter stuff - it's legal here!

As it seems I'll be spending some time in the as-yet-unheated barn this winter, I ordered a cheapish hoodie (light gray, because dark colors are for operas and funerals) from Amazon yesterday.  Later, when ordering something else, I found said hoodie still in my shopping cart.  Forgot to hit checkout?  Include it in this order.  This morning, reviewing my various orders, I found that there were two orders with the hoodie included, and it was too late to cancel either of them.  Oh, well: a spare hoodie seems a good thing to keep in the car.

Last week, I discovered that my phone hadn't been charging at night.  With some fiddling with the cable, I got it into "charging slowly" mode.  Eventually, I decided to attempt to diagnose the problem: was it the phone's USB connector or the cable?  Turns out the problem was on the phone side; while riding around in my shirt pocket, it had ingested a grass fragment which was preventing the connector from seating properly.

Looks like we're scheduled for rain Friday and Saturday, but mostly dry weather next week.  I still need to get a lumber order organized.

Ah, well.  Time to deal with the rest of the early-morning stuff.

Additional:  I'm beginning to understand why heated side mirrors are a thing.  (The truck has them, but we weren't taking the truck this morning.)  A heated trunk lid might be a good idea, too; I had a heck of a time getting the trunk to open.  Keeping a blow drier in the garage for defrosting the outside of the car could help, I suppose.  (Long ago, I had an idea for a butane-fueled blow drier for use in places where electricity is not conveniently available.  A jumbo version of that, for thawing out cars...?)

Uh-oh.

Just turned the page on my 2020 Discworld wall calendar.

All looks normal up to the end of the year.

The space following the 31^st of December, though, proclaims, in large unfriendly red letters:

ICK

I guess we'll find out.

Peeking outdoors on a snowy morning

Not exactly Hawaiian-shirt-and-cargo-shorts weather out there at the moment.

On the other hand, there's not enough for a proper snowman, either.  Nor for sledding down the front lawn.  Not that I've ever owned a sled anyway.  (Hey, Amazon!  Can I get same-day delivery on a sled?)

Update:  Southmoon has noticed the snow (and is watching the clumps that are still falling).  Alas, we still haven't gotten around to a fenced-in cat run (various other things are supposed to happen first, and they didn't happen this year), so she can't go out and play, not can Top Hat try out her snowfeet.

Snow started early

The forecast had the rain turning fluffy around dinnertime; in fact, it happened somewhat before 1600.

Mail didn't arrive until 1720, so, after dinner, I had to trudge 20 miles to the mailbox through snow and darkness, uphill both ways.

Update:  Snow continues into the morning.  There's even a small accumulation on the grass, cars, mailbox, etc.

Good thing we weren't planning to go anywhere this morning.

Pics later, after it gets light out there.

A significant difference in perception

Spotted here:

“The state of peace among men living side by side is not the natural state; the natural state is one of war,” wrote philosopher Immanuel Kant in 1795.

Contrast:

Man, a bear in most relations—worm and savage otherwise,—
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.

And, in real life?  Yeah, men compete, but men also cooperate to accomplish great deeds.  And maintaining a state of war requires strict supervision, lest spontaneous and unauthorized peace break out.

Y'know, I think there was a stuffed animal in this picture.

This seems, somehow, topical despite its age.

Owwwww...

Spent a chunk of the morning doing unexpectedly hard work with my hands.  Got both hands and wrists, and my left forearm, right sore.

Then, this afternoon, I got around to swapping in the new 12V (Aux) battery in the Younger Prius.  This process involved a considerable amount of contortion.  So now my back is sore too.

There was other stuff I had planned for this fine sunny afternoon, but I guess it'll have to wait.  I hope the weather will cooperate tomorrow afternoon.  Tomorrow evening is supposed to bring rain lasting most of the way through Monday, followed by snow.  Which I'm fine with, as long as I'm not trying to accomplish anything outdoors.

A Parcel Odyssey

I find this a little difficult to comprehend:

(It actually arrived right around 2000 on Friday, not 2055, but whatever.)

Amazon to carrier to Amazon to carrier to Amazon to another carrier and eventually here?  And when it got here, it was wearing a Priority Mail envelope, which isn't how Amazon usually ships small Prime parcels.

Correction:  The Priority Mail item that showed up on the doorstep at 2000 wasn't that one (I thought it was a bit bulky), but in fact was from another vendor, and I wasn't expecting it until Monday.

The little item from Amazon turned up in the mailbox, with the mail, sometime well after dark - so it could have been 2055 at that.  I found a full mailbox this morning when I trudged down to the road to fetch the paper.

The morning after

Wake up at 0300 with various leg cramps and my glucose alarm buzzing.  (The buzzer isn't actually glucose-specific, but that's one of the things that will set my left ear a-buzzing).

Eventually stumble out into the kitchen in search of morning caffeine.  Dishpan is still full.  Cat food is everywhere.  Oh, right: there were a lot of dishes, so the drainers were still full of slowly-drying cooking and dinner stuff at bedtime, leaving the dishpan full of dessert things.  Also, Joy zonked out uncharacteristically early, what with a lingering headache and a food overdose, having given the cats their last feed of the evening.  So, bunch of cleanup to be done.

Now that I'm moving around and somewhat caffeinated, the buzzing is diminishing.  Almost time to go face the mess, and do something about breakfast.  A high-protein breakfast, I think.  Something to calm the warning buzzer, not further provoke it.

Cooking commences

Two significant cooking items today: one large chicken, and one pumpkin pie.  There'll be side dishes too, of course.

Got the chicken unwrapped, giblets removed, and tucked into a giant zipper-bag with seasoning (cooking oil, balsamic vinegar, a little salt, a little red pepper, some thyme, and all the tarragon - this called for a trip to the basement to confirm the presence of a backup supply of tarragon).

Have to start the pie soon, so it'll be done in time for chicken-roasting to commence.  Planning an early dinner today, so everything has to start early.

Update:  In between my baking the pie and starting the chicken, Joy was busy in the kitchen with other things.  Coming up on chicken-roasting time, she informed me that the handle on the upper oven (the one we haven't been using for cooking of late) had come unmoored: the hole in the plastic handle into which a self-tapping screw is scrod (one such at each end of the handle; one still more or less working, one not at all) had gotten all worn out, and the threads would no longer engage it.  Examining the situation, I came up with a plan: stuff the hole with Acraglas Gel (great for all manner of home repairs, when duct tape just isn't good enough), goober the threads of the screw with the release agent, assemble, and somehow clamp the thing together while the gel sets up.

Well... my Acraglas kit is several years old, and spent most of those years were spent at uncontrolled room temperature.  The goop itself has gone all grainy and unmixable, and the release agent has gelled into a rubbery lump.

Ah, well.  Spray the threads with PTFE-based dry lube and hope for the best; mix up a batch of JB Weld and goober the holes (at both ends, because the other one will fail soon enough); assemble; hold in place with many pieces of Frog Tape.  We shall see how that goes.

And, yes, the chicken is now safely ensconced in the lower oven.

Turns out dinner doesn't really need to be as early as originally planned, so being half an hour or so behind schedule isn't a big deal.

December approacheth

At least according to the current weather report, which calls for a couple of inches of snow Monday night.

I think we'd better not plan on going anywhere Tuesday.  Also, maybe I should make a point of taking the garbage out early Monday evening.  Dragging that bin 600 feet through snow sounds like Not Fun.  (If snow is going to be a thing this winter, maybe I need to learn to carry the bin on the pallet forks... and operate the tractor in the snow.  Well, it does have 4-wheel drive and aggressive tread.)

Is this National Headache Day, or what?

I've had a nasty headache developing this morning.  Joy has a nasty headache this morning.  Huckleberry has been acting like he has a headache this morning.

The other cats seem normal, or at least normal for cats.  My father hasn't been complaining.  The carbon-monoxide alarms (plural) remain silent, and besides we don't have any CO sources active.

Caffeine isn't helping, and indeed may be making it worse.  Oh, well.  The only must-do item for today, specifically, is to bake a pumpkin, and even that I could get away with skipping, being as how we do have several cans of already-cooked pumpkin.  Maybe I should nap the day away (never having gotten around to either of the planned naps yesterday).

To summarize the summary of a summary: people are a problem.

Tom Scott offers a brief explanation of how the Interwebs got to be such a mess.

Of note: European regulations forbid any sort of tracking of users without consent.  Ergo, any site, including all those sites that serve up all the annoying embedded ads, that wants to track users, has to pop up a notice asking permission.

What I didn't hear him note is this:  What happens if you don't consent to tracking?  Why, the site in question can't remember anything about you... including the fact that you don't consent to tracking.  So it has to ask again on the next page load, and the next, and so on until you do consent.  Or install an adblocker, turn off JawaScript, etc.

And speaking of Zathras

I seem to have come unstuck in time.  Again.

This feels like a Sunday.  Yesterday, I was sufficiently connected to the calendar to remember that it was Monday, hence today would be Tuesday, that being garbage day, so I took out the garbage before it got dark.  This morning, the garbage bin was still down by the road when I went to fetch the paper, and it was definitely not a Sunday paper, so those are pretty good indications that it's more Tuesday than Sunday.

And yet... I keep thinking it's Sunday.  That doesn't even make sense; if Saturday comes on Thursday this week (because of the holiday), then this should be Thursday, shouldn't it?

Maybe if I take a nap I'll wake up thinking it's Monday.  Then one more nap ought to get me to Tuesday, right?

Quick randomness

Ever notice how some song lyrics just want to mutate?

Every so often, my playlist will include this variant of "The Water is Wide":

And, somehow, the last line,

I'll wait for you on Avalon's shore.

keeps trying to become:

I'll wait for you on Babylon Four.

I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean, but either way it is bad for Zathras.

(I've been largely out of touch with the filk community for many years; could be someone's run with this already and I didn't notice.)