COnscience is telling me to go out there and dump fertilizer on the Japanese maples.
Indolence is saying I could do it tomorrow.
There are times one lousy little sentence delays you for a week in writing.
In reality—it’s not the sentence. It’s the notion how to stuff what has to happen into it.
Wisdom for the day.
Got your latest TRACKER downloaded last night. Can’t read it until I’m done with ALTERNATE REALITIES which I picked up maybe a week ago. But I’m real excited to see what Bren has been up to! It’s hard not to peek but it seems I’ve never read the stories in Alternate Realities and they are good too, so I must finish. I have no doubt at all I will love TRACKER as I do all your works. THANKS for being such a prolific, intelligent and thoughtful writer!
And tomorrow the roofers will come by to start peeling off the old roof. I’m going to stick around in case they have questions.
Well, I got the pond water level right (come a warm day, I’m going to have to get down and muddy and reset the autotopoff valve…) so the pump’s ok, got the Matala filter cleaned, fertilized the Japanese maples, front yard and back, and trimmed up the Mugo pine on pondside so it isn’t a featureless lump. We’re trying for bonsai.
Mugo pines make the best bonsai! Even the young ones have such character…
I wonder if buying a set of waders (hip boots) would help with keeping you from getting so muddy, at least your legs, etc.????
Oh, I’ve got a rainsuit, which I do wear when I have to really get into the muck—coat and trousers, big enough to fit over winter clothing—I also use it for windbreak while using the snowblower. Warm and toasty. Really warm and toasty in the summer… ;0
Tracker is on my desk, really looking forward to it !
No spoilers **** 75% finished on the first read through of Tracker. I had to surface for a meal and the necessity. Great book so far! I’ve laughed and I’ve cried; the emotional content is superb, as well as the political landscape. Way to go Nand’Seijei! One assures you that I’ll be sending a contribution to the bannik in the next couple of days. I’ll finish reading Tracker before sleep claims me tonight.
I downloaded Tracker tonight and it’s killing me that I don’t dare start it until next Wednesday evening. That night I can stay up all night reading it if I wish, but alas, this week I must make time to do all the last minute work that each tax season seems to have. This year seems worse than ever, or maybe I’ve just been doing this stuff for too long!
Tracker in hardback arrived in the afternoon’s mail. The ebook and audiobook versions downloaded this morning. It is not quite Wednesday yet.
If only the rest of life were so sublimely efficient!
I have Chanur’s Venture to finish rereading, and Inheritor, and then I will “skip ahead” to Tracker, likely.
There are also some more computer program manuals I need to get read.
Finished Tracker the same day I got it on my iPad. Now another year of woe,
Jago gets lost so Bren has to Track’er.
Bren walks through mud then comes into the kitchen very muddy.
Bren goes to work for a rug company as a Tacker.
Sorry.
One small complaint – for months I thought that the title of the new book was Unknown as that was the title shown on the progress report.
But it is well worth the wait and the reading. Full Marks to Ms. Cherryh.
Finished Tracker Tuesday night. Did NOT want story to end… Another year? Leave us on tenterhooks, why doncha? Now back to taxes…
Picked up Tracker at the bookstore this noon – there’s also a copy coming from the Large South American River, and I think it will end up at the library.
aannnd: typo on page 6, next to last paragraph: Ragi is the ‘principal Atevi language’ – although it may be the Atevi language in principle!
I don’t think that’s a typo – it just means that Ragi is the main Atevi language, the one most spoken, doesn’t it? There are a few smaller local dialects or languages. For instance the Edi could speak Edi among themselves without being completely understood by the Ragi-speakers they wanted to exclude, when they were fighting the Shadow Guild. I would expect the East to have some kind of local dialect at least, too, though we haven’t met it at Malguri.
I believe the typo P J Evans is referring to is “…he spoke Ragi, the principle Atevi language…” (emphasis mine). I don’t think I even noticed it on reading; perhaps my co-workers have ruined me for such niceties of the English language.
principle = a concept, tenet, etc.
principal = foremost, chief, etc.
Page 148, when Damiri is talking to Cajieri during the thunderstorm, she says “Lighting has hit the Bujavid roof.” One fears that an “n” has been dropped.
It should be principal—I don’t make that mistake—in fact I’m quite sensitive to it— so probably I had help from the copyeditor. An easy way to remember which is which is that the reason a school principal is called a principal is that it’s short for ‘principal teacher’ in old charters setting up schools.
Tracker arrived Tuesday. I was finished with it by yesterday, read in big gulps. In a word, MOAR! There must be more. There simply must be. **inarticulate noise of frustration**
Ignorant question time: Is Cenedi a hard “C” or a soft “C”? I’ve always read it as a hard “C” and figured it was spelled that way because of a similar Irish name you didn’t want the baggage of. Figured if it was a soft “C” you would have spelled it with an “S.”
I’m becoming almost as fond of Tatiseigi (sp?) as I am of Lord Geigi. There are times when he reminds me of Nigel Bruce and others when he reminds me of C. Aubrey Smith.
Going into a sad time. The white cat is crossing the rainbow bridge probably next week, definitely before the 30th. He’s 16, is definitely getting deaf. He is gradually becoming ataxic and it’s freaking him out. My sweet little grey girl is in the beginning stages of renal failure. She is 11. She will follow her adopted big brother next month unless the situation becomes precipitously worse, at which time . . . Her BUN jumped 20 points in 3 months (from 55 to 77) and her creatinine took an equally big jump. I will miss my babies bitterly, but I have neither the money nor the stomach to get heroic about the situation.
That leaves me with the black one, the baby at 8 year old. He is overweight. Immediately the white one has crossed over, he will be put on rations. He will lose weight. (I feed her a kidney formula up on top of the dryer. The white one has never been much of a jumper, even in his salad days, the black one couldn’t get up on the dryer when he was skinny. She jumps and climbs like a mountain goat.)
My mom turns 91 this year. Still in really good shape for her age. She wants to travel and visit relatives. I have a nice new car.
My cat sitter whom they know and love, is moving to Florida in less than 2 months. (His love of 30 years and husband of five days died suddenly of a heart attack in 2012, he’s selling their house, drastically downsizing, starting over.) I cannot afford to board three. I can afford to board one. The 8 year old never meets a stranger. He will have the people at the board facility making much of him and will bask in the glory of it.
These things have a way of working out. Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.
It is unlikely I will make it over to WA this summer, but next summer. . . things may have changed for the better financially speaking and things may be possible that are not possible now. You’d better still be doing your little barbi-con again next year.
Going now to see pictures chez Jane.
No, it’s a lot like Kennedy, but a little broader.
Tatiseigi, poor fellow, wanted kids, but just never had them: kind of moved sideways into the lordship, has a fierce reputation, but is, as you have guessed, has a serious soft spot for youngsters, particularly those with manners — he’s keen on manners.
So sorry about the aging kitties. Quality of life and freedom from pain are real considerations.
Re your black earthbound one—suggest that Petco sells some lovely little all-meat dinners: we had a terrible weight issue with Shu, and diets only made him frantic for food. We got this stuff, which is all chicken, all salmon, etc, and put both kitties on this. Weight fell off, Shu now has a waist, and he’s jumping again. Scarily so. He’s happier, and not feeling hungry. High protein instead of carbohydrates will do that for kitties. Little white packet bottom, pull-foil top, Nature’s Recipe, Grain Free. Ours like the chicken and the salmon. Best kitty diet-it-off-the-waistline-without-unhappiness food we’ve found. One packet per kitty per day, so it looks pricey but they eat less of it. If cats are chowing down on kibble bigtime, the kibble can get pricey too.
And we do hope to go on doing the barbicons, for whoever can make it.
Like kinetic, but d instead of t, and no final c?
So sorry to hear of your kitties coming to the end of their times her, WOL. I know those anxious, dread-filled weeks of love and tears very well.
We just buried our bunny of 13 years in the garden by his sister and our two, old cats this afternoon. Petros Bun died in early February of old age but the ground here was frozen and covered with snow, so we wrapped him up and, literally, put him on ice — under a deep snow mound we’ve been topping off next a north facing wall. The south facing garden bed has been snow free for a few weeks now and was soft enough to dig, so we shoveled Petros out of his still snowy mound today and bade him a final goodbye to the earth.
Sad, sad when one loses a pet. I’ve come to realize they come in generations and it is especially hard when those generations coincide and they pass together.
WOL, I’m sorry to hear about your cats. I went through a few months after losing a very beloved kitty a few years back, but then got one, and a few years later, another, my current two, now over 8 and over 4. Each cat I’ve ever had has had his or her own unique personality. It’s always worth it.
@ CJ — Thanks so much for the moist cat food recommendation. I’ll look for it. I have a Mutt and Jeff, or Jack Spratt and Wife problem with my two. Goober is naturally long and lean and has built-in appetite control. He also is not assertive enough to tell Smokey to buzz offf, so Smokey steals his food. Smokey is like Shu, but was the rescued street kitten. He always wants food, even if he’s too full. (Because for his first 6 or 8 weeks, he never had enough.) He’s also small and stout from that early life, despite a good home life once I got him. So he’s too heavy for his size. If I try to separate them (different rooms, different heights) it’s, “Oh, what does the other guy have that I don’t?” If I put one behind a closed door so Mr. Assertive aka Trouble doesn’t steal Mr. Non-Assertive’s food, then both of them go into, “OMG! We’re separated! The horror! Let him out, I’ve got to get him!” Both of them. Heh, never mind they occasionally fuss at each other. They’d still rather be together.
So…a moist food that would help both without making either one too hungry…sounds ideal, even if it’s a little more expensive. They currently get dry food (a pricey brand, but it was the only thing my previous kitty could take when he got older, and these two show the same reaction) (Solid Gold Katz-n-Flokken, but not the “Indigo Moon” flavor, the one in the purplish bag instead. Both Petco and Amazon carry it, Petsmart does not.) They also get pretty ordinary moist food once a day, Friskies or 9-Lives, usually. — I’d be happy to try a brand that’s better for them and satisfies their hunger and taste, nutrition and weight issues…and the inter-feline personality imbalance. Heh.
I’ve been thinking about it. I have the same problem with sentences spoken in my life!