Musings

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.

Posted at 7:58 PM | Comments Off on Eve pondering

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.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Minor device mystery

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….

Posted at 5:46 PM | Comments Off on Meet The Beast

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.

Posted at 9:26 PM | Comments Off on Dynamic but not a dynamic island

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.

Posted at 8:58 PM | 1 Comment »

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.

Posted at 7:33 PM | Comments Off on Hominess

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.]

Posted at 8:13 PM | Comments Off on Abundance of caution

Behold: dispersive optical prism wavelength spectrum. If I have the jargon correct.

Posted at 8:31 PM | Comments Off on Spectral colors

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.

Posted at 8:08 PM | Comments Off on Half way

On our recent trip to Seattle, we managed to see the younger nephew graduate from HS…before we tested positive for Covid. All this time being so careful since it arrived on our shores, and this highly transmissible variant got us when we were far from home.

We had mild congestion and snottiness, took the antiviral pills, got better, and finally tested negative. This was our basement quarantine room, and we had generous hosts who let us stay although we were infectious. We were very lucky, and very glad we finally recovered and could return home.

And, today we received a large shipment of N-95 masks, the best quality available (unless you have complex breathing equipment)…because anything else is a joke to this variant. Remember: N-95’s are only 95% effective, and that’s if they are properly sealed to your face.

Posted at 7:57 PM | 3 Comments »