Wednesday, 28 December 2022
Turns out the shady side of our house protected yesterday’s snowfall into the afternoon today; however, today’s temps reached the upper 50’s for long enough that, pfft, most of the dusting is now only moisture.
Lemme just point out that our lot’s dark side is in no way like the dark side of the moon. No way. None.
Saturday, 24 December 2022
In honor of this cold, voila!, the Cut Bank, Montana, penguin…on a sunny day with no snow, ice, or freezing temps. [Photo from our archive.]
Learned the term qubit today. Not a cubit. A portmanteau of quantum and bit. Instead of being binary, either one or zero, a qubit can be one or zero or both. I fail to understand how that can work, so it’s a good thing that better minds than mine are working with the darned qubits. Somehow, a qubit can also hold two bits. Now my brain is fractured.
Thursday, 17 November 2022
I’m mystified how my iPad, my ancient iPad and night-time reading device (black background, very light siena letters), which spends all its time (except when I rarely download new reading material) in Airport mode, manages to find out when there are software updates available.
My hypothesis is that Airport mode is not a total lockdown, despite indications to the contrary.
Friday, 30 September 2022
Some time ago I decided that land management issues (read vegetation) would improve if I had a motorized scythe. Either that or a small tractor-and-bush-hog, and the latter is just too much equipment. Instead, I ordered a Super-Duper Trimmer. It came with a large-diameter string option, and two metal blades, one for tough grasses, and one with saw-teeth for woody brush. Our problem is robust-stemmed grasses. Mostly. And so: The Beast, with a metal blade. I finally got it to start today. You’d think: brand new—first pull. Not with my luck.
It is a beast. It does the job. The harness distributes the weight very well, and pfft: new tool. A fine calorie-burner. Set feet, swing shaft-and-blade to cut. Swing back, set feet anew. Repeat.
Not so happy that’s it’s a two-stroke, but the next-door neighbor fixes and maintains all types of motorized equipment, so I can pawn off maintenance on him and his crew. Yay on that.
Like the pink handkerchief sun valence? A fashion touch….
Monday, 19 September 2022
I’m often amazed at how the photographic image from my phone differs from my live perception of the moment. What I saw—or focused on—was a small area of sunshine on the field at distant center. I can only barely see it here, when squinting. Instead the sky is menacing and grey, which I did not notice.
Wednesday, 10 August 2022
Personal consumer wish list: sorta smart appliances that allow, I dunno, something like bluetooth syncing of clocks. That would include my oven, coffeemaker, microwave, that sorta device—with my phone sending them the time. No internet cloud connection and information sharing with distant strangers. Just two devices, one obtaining basic data from the other.
Wednesday, 27 July 2022
I’m still adjusting to…not being on a tippy ship; not being at sea level; not being at 9400ft (plus or minus); and, not having a chef and sous chef to cater to my food needs and subsequent clean-up.
Dish processing tip: put the clean, damp dishes—all stacked as they will be on the shelf—in the microwave and dry them that way.
Tuesday, 26 July 2022
Given how many people we were around during our relocation from the southern hemisphere to home over Sun/Mon, we are unofficially in quarantine. During different parts of our trip more and fewer people around us were masked; however, few of the masks were at this 95% level of filtration, so ya gotta consider that germs were out and about. Thus, we have to trust that our well-fitted 95% masks did their job vis-à-vis Covid (and monkeypox, and the common cold…etc.]. We won’t know for a few more days, however. [I prefer the model on the left. The Guru prefers the type on the right.]
Thursday, 7 July 2022
Behold: dispersive optical prism wavelength spectrum. If I have the jargon correct.
Thursday, 30 June 2022
How is it we are almost half way through 2022? It seems like the year began so very recently.
Last night after dark we had a power hit for about two hours. We heard the pop that I associate with a whoz-it blowing right before the power went. Data. Predictability.