Musings

We got a burst of rain about 12:20 this afternoon, then it stopped. It started back up about two hours later, and hasn’t stopped. So far, the wind’s not kicked up; that’s what I dread most. It’ll be an unsettled night. We’ve got all devices charged up…including the car 🤣.

Posted at 9:12 PM | Comments Off on Hello Helene

I just read (okay: skimmed) a WaPo article by Andrew Zaleski that describes a new operation for people with knee cartilage problems. Surgeons put a pellet of calcium carbonate derived from coral exoskeletons (yeah, the reef kind) in the bone. Over time, the pellet is absorbed and the body makes a gooey substance that acts rather like real cartilage. It’s a fast operation, albeit with a different recovery curve than knee replacement. Zaleski describes two other new approaches with good results.

I’ll try to remember this. Right now my knees are okay (knock on wood), but they have had issues, and I baby them frequently.

Date: 17 Sept 2024. Title (that I saw online): Not ready for a knee replacement? You might be able to fix your cartilage instead.

Posted at 10:06 PM | Comments Off on Surgical knee magic

Gravity is a dependable engineering principle. Oh, wait. Apparently it’s not a force, but a curvature of spacetime. Yikes.

Posted at 10:21 PM | Comments Off on Good luck with the fine print

Here at the cottage, unlike at the city house, we have a garage; however, it is not electrified. So, we charge the plug-in hybrid from the cottage, like this, then relocate the car to the garage when juiced.

The orange light on the ferns is from the porch (this was just a few minutes ago), and you can see that rain+unpaved_road means the car is again muddy. We are so glad to be here, even so.

Posted at 9:31 PM | Comments Off on Evidence

I (software) updated two devices this evening while listening to the excellent news about the Americans (and people of other nationalities, totaling 16) who are no longer being imprisoned by Putin.

Posted at 7:17 PM | Comments Off on Updates

I walked this morning in the coolness, nose-level or nose-down as is typical for me. Below this I noticed a one-foot chunk of wooden pole, triggering a look-up.

Yup, replacement underway. The upper lines and a transformer (?) have been switched to the new, taller pole, but the old one, albeit shortened, still seems to be carrying the lower lines.

You can tell it’s relatively early in the day, as the light is bright only on the tree-tops. [Proud of myself; photo was taken at 6:48am.]

Posted at 9:25 PM | Comments Off on Infrastructure updating

I do very much enjoy this photo setting when it works (portrait, stage light).

First day of summer vegetation progress report from central north Georgia mountains: mimosa trees in full flower and scattered moderate sized pink blooms in the ditches that I couldn’t recognize at highway speeds.

Posted at 9:58 PM | Comments Off on Canna lily art

Before coffee, I got confused about…well, I thought it was the longest day of the year, so I stepped out before sunrise to look up. Of course, the phone compensated for the darkness and made it darned light. And I got the solstice wrong; it’s tomorrow.

BC here is Before Coffee

Posted at 9:43 PM | Comments Off on Confusion BC

My favorite cheese-grating device…failed. [Flexes biceps]…I don’t know my own strength. 🤣

Posted at 9:06 PM | Comments Off on Oops

We are three meals in on our air fryer experiments…two of salmon filets, and one of tofu. We are (I am) trying to incorporate more fish/other meals in our diet, instead of terrestrial critter protein (including dairy).

One advantage of the air fryer, and I don’t understand how this happens, but there’s no fishy odor. Amazing.

Posted at 10:19 PM | Comments Off on Coneflower and menus