Making progress on the book finally. Not as if we haven’t been trying, but a year and all that surgery and anaesthetic has kind of a scrambling effect, and getting back up to speed, and getting my hands typing again is a biggie!
Thank you for the offer of a hand warmer. That’s very kind. I do have one and it is a help, or was before we had furnace heat right at our doorstep.
Another person who has helped is Patricia Briggs, our distant neighbor and real good friend, who is a doll. We went out to a couple of horse shows (she breeds Arabians) and got out of the house—great fun. Patty writes the Mercy Thompson books, and if you’ve not read her stuff, either the regular fantasy or the Mercy books, you might give them a try. She blessed me with a cold laser, a veterinary thing they use on horses, and you have to know lasers even of this mild grade can be seriously dangerous, but I do know, can use it, and find it helps the neuropathy. So that is a real positive.
This is Jane’s week and mine for doctor appointments, things postponed during 2020, and my followup with my doc, and the endocrinologist (thank you, Grant) who is trying to get me medicated for osteoporosis without screwing up the neuropathy. I think we may be on the right track. I hope so.
Anyway, enough med stuff. The heat wave is past and work is proceeding. We now have 90,000 words of 120,000 word typical length on the Alliance book, and are making steady progress.
Hi, all. I’m so glad CJ and Jane (and Patty) are doing well, and got through the heat wave. Temps where I am have been weirdly below average for, I want to say a couple of months, and we’ve had rain off and on, sometimes flash flooding, which has also moderated the temps. This has been a blessing here. But I’d seen reports of how hot it has gotten in Washington and Canada and even Antarctica and wow, that’s worse than some summers here (except Antarctica, but it was well above freezing, I think into the 60’s Fahrenheit there). And then the flooding in Western Europe. Gosh.
Things have been from difficult to wacky to intolerable here, but maybe a little is shaking loose this week (I hope). Changes at my apt. complex meant my mailbox keys stopped working and still need to be resolved, and an iOS update on my iPhone meant it refused to take my password (separate from my numeric passcode), and then the passcode also. I tried to reset the phone to factory settings, then to restore it from iCloud backup and then I couldn’t read all the setup screens, so it was stuck in the process and I had to turn it off. I’d emailed my local friend, discovered I didn’t have the email for another local fiiend I’d thought I did, and have had to email repeatedly. My phone is still not resolved. Likely, I may have a password and/or passcode issue (or more than one) to resolve, besides the restore. I won’t know until my friend comes by. So I have been stuck, isolated. Side Effect: my local grocery store’s deliveries rely on phoning the customer when the delivery person is at the deliver address, and that, plus their website acting flaky for the past two months, has mean Amazon has been my sole source for groceries. (Amazon is odd about things going in and out of stock if you don’t order right then, so you have to check every time you modify your cart before placing your order.) So, also, I haven’t been anywhere: no way to get a cab either. I will be really glad when my phone issue is resolved again. (It’s paid, it’s just locked up at the iOS level.) — It’s a good thing they never have this problem in science fiction shows! But hey, that’s a way they never tried with the Borg! Hahaha.
There’s been construction repairs ongoing at my apt. complex, so lots of sawing, hammering, etc. throughout the day and into early evenings, at random. — I’m still having some issues with the mgmt., but finally, this week, people came by and aha, I am back in (for yet another time) for rent assistance, and maybe this time they can keep track of their own submissions on my behalf and are supposed to send me copies. So…. So I am again in limbo over whether my past rent will be taken care of or not. Plus, pest control and a repair to the apt. above or in between the walls is (maybe) scheduled for the end of this week. So yay? I no longer know whether to have any faith that anything will actually happen as discussed verbally, and with mail and phone down, just…I have this ongoing urge to scream into the void or punch a punching bag, but these are not too helpful. (And I’m only half joking there.)
My eyesight is a real problem lately. It’s harder for me to read text, including magnified, or with black text foreground and white page background as we typically use them. “Dark Mode” helps some, but how it’s implemented in some interfaces is not always too helpful (such as the “skin/theme” for the coding text editor I use.) — I have been struggling, and it is worrisome and scary. — I haven’t been making progress towards Audio voice work. (Side Note: Audacity has been declared spyware due to, they were bought, the project has forked from that open source to another, but is not yet into a working alternative program. So all Audacity users are either using an old version (I am) or they are doing something else, or are unaware.) But it’s not yet a full roadblock for me.
Goober, my senior cat, I had to have put to sleep in mid-May; he’s now been gone for over 9 weeks. He was losing weight fast, not eating well, only sleeping except to do basics. I miss him very much, and still catch myself occasionally saying his name when praising or calling Brindle, who is now nearly to her 3/4 year mark of when she arrived. She has become a stocky little chunk, and is nearly overweight. She still doesn’t come when called and still doesn’t sleep with me, with few exceptions, but when she does come around or gets attention, she’s all about it. And food. She is just a little different. Yet if I go out of the apt., she’s at the window wanting me back in. Funny sort of cat. But I love her anyway. — I have not gotten another cat yet. And I have not even heard any cats in a few weeks. I think the strays were nearly all cleared out in April, shortly after Brindle was spayed (neutered). Since no other cat has shown up to be adopted, if/when I do that, it will likely be from a local shelter.
My local friend is supposed to be helping get me into a new place, a rental not a rent-to-own yet, but has had trouble finding anything any better than where I am now. I would prefer not to do a mobile home, because those do not do well in hurricane country. But so far, I’m not sure if I can get any better deal than here. If I could know I could get a good roommate, Id be OK with that, but I haven’t lived with anyone else in so, so long. Yet I think I’m at the sage where having someone else around would be a good idea. My friend said he had a possible choice now, but he didn’t swing by yesterday as he’d said he would. So I don’t know yet.
I have been fighting malaise, depression, about all this for weeks now. I’m not making enough progress. I am, however, getting up and doing, whether it’s day or night, my sleep/wake cycle is more wonky than usual (it’s always off-kilter.) and…yeah, I’m a mess. I am trying to keep going, mto keep motivated. But I feel blocked within myself and at every turn lately. Just having to get through it.
When I’ve tried to write, a lot of stuff has been coming out that is clearly me trying (or avoiding) dealing with past issues and history, autobiographical, or else wish-fulfillment or other wonky stuff, and not too helpful. Most of that either gets deleted or some bits stay, but are unlikely to make it out of a drafts or junk folder. — But a few things have stayed as potentially good chunks, just not full stories or more than pieces of things. — I am so freaked out by everything that I’m not really creatively accomplishing much toward finishing anything. I want to get writing done, stories. I want to do audio voice work. I want to do fonts, but can’t really see to do those now. I feel very much blocked on things and am not sure how to get unblocked. I have too little local support still.
When I’d last talked to my cousin (another town in -state) and my remaining uncle (out of state very small town) I got sympathy, but that was it, and my cousin is so busy working, trying to get out of his and his wife’s personal troubles (mortgage, unemployment for her) that the last call was only him listening and saying he couldn’t do anything, even to come by. My uncle now has health problems. I don’t think I could move in with either family. And my attempts to contact family in Oklahoma never got an answer, although the letters were not returned either. So I am mostly on my own, and friends here have been more help.
However, I’m hoping that the flurry of actual anything in response from the apt. office yesterday may at least help or push back any problems for a little longer, and I’m hoping I’ll see that local friend today or this week. If not, I just keep trying.
Folks, I am trying to stay positive, but I’m also struggling to keep myself functional or productive. I feel alone and outnumbered and my own inner issues are not helping me work things out either. — But I’m still around, still hoping, trying some, and some days are better than others.
I haven’t been on the blog here in a few weeks, so I’m not caught up. I know the last time I’d checked, I hadn’t seen a couple of semi-regulars. I hope everyone is OK.
I will be emailing the group again soon, and will update here once I know a little more.
Note: No progress toward federal or state aid, which is on me, but can’t proceed again until my phone and mail are working again. (I do have email access.) — I am sure I am making typos and auto-correct is likely interfering, as I’m only touch-typing this.
My thanks to everyone who’s been thinking of me and sending good thoughts. For now, I am still OK but yes, things are precarious and it’s like a comedy of errors. Hoping things will get better, enough to work on it more again. I’ll be submitting another grocery order later in the week; I can still do that.
I hope you all are doing well. I wish I had some better news and things resolved. I’ll update later once I know anything.
@Teasel — The last I think we’d heard, CJ is still busy working on it and the A/U book is, I think, ahead of it in priority order. But maybe someone else knows better than I do. I think we’re all eager to know what happens next in the Foreigner cycle and the A/U book. AFAIK, we don’t know when the audiobook for Alliance Rising is due out either. I keep looking, but so far, no joy.
One Update for my personal stuff: Yay, the maintenance guy came around to check the leak. and determined, yes, it was in the upstairs or the adjoining apartment. Their garbage disposal was clogged or had broken, as best as I could determine from his Spanish. My fluency on vocabulary and my grasp/emmory of former grammar proficiency is still too spotty. Every time I try to listen or speak, I discover I’m missing some vital words or structural certainty about it. My grammar used to be pretty good, up through Spanish II in high school, but without enough practice and reinforcement, I’ve become too fuzzy on several things I used to know fine. Plus not sufficient new vocabulary building. I wish I could get a really good ebook textbook or audiobook that would cover things better. But I’m still lagging on even things I want to do, and I think I have some block going on, when there should be no block for languages. When I have done review recently, I am not retaining nearly as much for as long as I think I am. It comes back, I think I’ve got it down again, but no, it’s not fully there. Sigh.
Pest control supposedly tomorrow. My friend was supposedly by, there was a note on my door, but I don’t know when he came by, I heard absolutely no knock, so I must’ve been elsewhere in the apt., as the note wasn’t there yesterday. Sigh. Nothing else new yet.
Hi BCS. have you managed to get your vaccination yet? With so many other troubles to deal with it may not easily reach the top of your to-do list but it could really help you by making other activities like shopping and meeting others more possible – even your idea of potentially sharing space would probably benefit from your being protected. Just a thought. And glad to see you back online again.
Hi, iota! — Hah, seeing about vaccination locations was what I’d wanted to do the week that my cell phone went down. I had not received anything by mail or phone to schedule it, so I’d thought I’d start with my grocery store pharmacy, which had had a notice via their website, about vaccinations being available. This is something I absolutely want done. (Neither my local friend nor my cousin followed through on it when I had asked.) I have been lucky so far, probably due to being as isolated as a hermit. So I’ll have both vaccinations to get done, and then I hope I’l be OK. I don’t understand the anti-vaxxer / hoax crowd. And yes, not being vaccinated has only added to the stress.
I emailed my local friend and hope to hear from him so he can get my cell phone resolved one way or the other. Once that’s done, I should be able to check my local Kroger’s or find a local vaccination location.
The latest news: The friend claims he’s been able to work with the apartments for a deal on the rent, to renew for a year at a somewhat reduced rate. I asked if that was only the rent, not the rent plus utilities plus pet fees per month, as that adds a bit. — But judging from what I’d seen, rents here in town are going up, there’s not a lot available, so this may be (sigh, woe, alas) the best or only deal for the next year. But even if I have to stay here a year, if it is stable, if I don’t have to leave, then that would sure ease my mind a lot, and by this time next year, possibly my situation will be cleared up enough to have a more viable option for moving somewhere. I am not thrilled about staying in this apartment, but it beats being homeless or in some bad or untenable situation.
Everything is still stalled out until I have my cell phone and mailbox going again. — I have been really down, not nearly productive enough, but this week has gone a bit better, a tiny bit of progress, so I’m hoping to catch up a little.
(Wacky: If I end up staying here, I can unpack, dagnabit, and maybe declutter further, and work on the storage space over the fall and winter. Aarrgh. …And then if I get to move around next August, pack again. (Eegad!) It’s hilarious in one way, almost infuriating in another.
If the renewal is my best chance, then I’m going for it.
Off to do some cleanup and maybe mop, very much overdue. I did laundry the day before yesterday; it’s still drying (no dryer). But I’m resolved to go through and weed out some clothing over the weekend and next week.
Dang it, gotta get another couple of masks from my supply to have handy to wear.
I just wish I could work past my own weaknesses and get the help I need, get local support and new friends, and get income going, so I have some better hoe of getting out of this situation. Every time one thing gets fixed, something else happens. But my eyesight and vaccination (and m teeth) are the most worrisome, besides the housing and income and lack of local friends or a roommate.
If I know I’m going to be here, then I may see about adopting a cat or kitten from a shelter. Brindle is too solitary and could benefit from a cat friend, and I’d like to also. But I’m not 100% ready yet, and had been holding off, since I thought I’d get to move. So a second cat is a possibility, but not for a while yet.
More news if and when it happens. — It’s good to see people are still around, and I hope everyone is doing all right.
Man…everyone around here was up at all hours last night. I don’t know why. I got a nap yesterday evening, but didn’t get any sleep overnight, due to people outside or in the apts. all around, every hour or two. It hasn’t been that crazy in ages. I don’t know why it was last night. (I’m not a sports fan; I have zero clue, ahah!) So I’m hoping for an early night tonight.
Take care, everyone!
— BTW, has Deesha been on at all in the past two months or so? I don’t recall having seen them posting. I recall their situation’s been precarious, so I hope they are all aright too. I noticed this; I’m sure there are other semi-regulars too that I should’ve noted. I haven’t caught back up on the blog posts from mid-May yet.
Hi BCS… I don’t know how vaccination booking works in your area (or in US tbh) but if you need a phone to make an appointment perhaps your friend could do it for you? Or do they do pop up centres in your area? Where I live you can either book by NHS app or check local NHS website weekly for a list of what walk in clinics or mobile units will be open and what vaccines they can offer. Perhaps someone else can assist here who’s been through the process recently and knows more about what options you might have? Once you have completed the course you will just have so many more options about going out and about. Just getting some fresh air and exercise helps too I think. One other thought, is there such a thing as Citizens Advice Bureau or similar over there? It sounds like you might benefit from someone experienced in untangling these sort of problems and who could give disinterested advice. I really hope so and am wishing you well. It’s hard enough at the moment even for those of us who live with family and friends and are still in employment. My heart goes out to those of us battling this alone. Take care.
Dear iota, thank you so, so much for being kind and friendly.
Our US system is divided between federal (national) help agencies and state-based agencies (and also local / county based agencies), and in some ways, the states and national levels are at cross purposes while in other ways, they work together. Yes, we have an odd system, especially without nationalized health care like (ahem) nearly every other civilized (or not-so-civilized, haha) country on the planet. As you have probably noticed, the last several years in particular, our system has been broken from divisiveness and politicized / religious-ized, ah, debate would be too polite and inappropriate a word for it. (Yes, you folks in the UK had Brexit, and similar problems in some ways to your Colonial cousins across the Pond here.) — Sigh.
Anyway, thank you again, and I’ll have an update below.
Totally off topic but important: When is the next Foreigner book due out? I see Divergence is out in paperback Sept. 8 and the release of a pbk usually heralds a new hardcover. I can’t even see what the title is supposed to be. Yes I know that everybody’s attention is focused on the Alliance-Union universe at the moment but the suspense has been getting to me. It’s unfortunate that we can read faster than CJ can write!
Cats seem to be a frequent topic here so I hope it’s ok to try to take advantage of all this expertise… we have a new neighbour whose cat seems to have only one mission in life: to gate crash our house. Three times last week I have been startled whilst working (once on a Teams call and on video) by this cat suddenly streaking across the room. And once by this same cat suddenly rubbing against my leg under the desk (nearly shot out of my skin). We are having a bit of a heatwave in the Uk at the moment. Nowhere near the sort of temperature CJ has been blogging about but hot enough for us to need to keep front and back doors open to create air cross flows. Not being a cat person myself (sorry, everyone) I’m really not keen to have him/her make a habit of these home invasions. How do I politely discourage them? I have heard that cats don’t like certain herbs or plant smells but I’m not sure if this is a myth? Please help!
@iota, I shouldn’t count on any such scent markers keeping a curious cat out. I’d try a physical barrier that still lets air through, like a screen door. As an added benefit that should also keep the mosquitos out.
It does need to be a door though, not some kind of curtain.
The back door should open out, which should make it relatively easy to install a simple hinged screen door on the inside. You can get them as kits, where you need a little fine-toothed aluminium-cutting handsaw (in Dutch we call it an “iron saw”; this is the one I use) to cut the frame to the size of your doorframe (it needs to overlap the frame slightly, rather than fitting inside the opening), and a screwdriver, and that’s all the tools you need, plus scissors or a sharp knife to cut off the excess screen fabric (keep it for repairs, stitching it onto the surrounding fabric of any holes or tears later).
Something like this, though the one I’ve got has an 8-inch high aluminium ‘kick plate’ across the bottom as well.
I also added a small hook on each side (using a little piece of scrapwood at the crossbar to attach them to, as the usual hooks couldn’t screw on to aluminium), with an eye screwed into the regular doorframe, so I could latch it shut and the cats can’t open it by pushing against it, as they could with only the magnetic closure holding it. If several different people might want to use the doorway from different sides you’ld need to think of another way to do that.
The front door should open inwards, which means you’ld have to fix the screen door to the outside of the house doorframe, as I’ve seen in some American films. Local codes might not allow that.
If you have a hallway at the front entry, you could try blocking that with a baby-gate or a screen door.
There are a great many options, both in wood and in metal, in a wide price range. If you don’t want it to be a tripping hazard, pick one that doesn’t have the fixed sill along the bottom of the doorway. Check that the way it needs to be mounted to the walls or doorway works with the access you want to block.
I blocked off my stairway with a (just below hip-height) wooden kiddie-gate to keep my two cats apart when needed, but I had to make the gate about half again as tall by fixing a sheet of clear acrylic to it (cutting out a hole so I could reach the handle from both sides was most of the work), as the biggest cat would jump over it.
You can easily remove the screen doors to store during winter by unscrewing the 3 hinges from the housedoor frame; keep the screws in an envelope or small plastic bag taped or tied to the door in storage, so you can easily re-hang it in the same screwholes next summer.
Is your door on hinges, or is it a sliding door? Either can be retrofitted with a separate screen door to allow airflow, and both can have a cat flap installed for your own cats, if your cats are allowed outside. If not, just install the screen door and don’t bother with the cat door.
cumin, ammonia for males
Wiki says:
There are a number of safe, nontoxic scents that cats don’t like and will tend to avoid:
black pepper.
cayenne pepper.
dry mustard powder.
coffee grounds (ask for free grounds at your local cafe)
used tea leaves.
orange peels.
Nature’s Wisdom Orange Oil Concentrate.
Shake-Away (cat repellant granules)
Thanks HRHSpence. I have seen similar… Cheekily I’m just wondering Whether I can dig into all the wonderful cat expertise on this site to see if anybody’s tried these, do any of them work, and which is best? I can try a cocktail of all or any except the proprietary stuff but if anyone tells me that’s the only thing that works I’ll be ordering it pronto!
I doubt that a line of repellant scent is going to keep the cat from crossing your threshold as they will simply hop over the line. I would recommend trying a physical screen/barrier such as a baby or pet “fence” (whatever the expandable doorway barriers are that people put up to keep babies/pets from entering a room they shouldn’t go into). That said, a determined cat may simply do a high jump over even that barrier.
But even if you weren’t expecting it, apparently it’s a human-friendly cat–could’ve been worse.
I am easily startled these days… and really don’t want any strays in my house at all! I’m even toying with keeping a loaded water pistol on my desk. Would that work?
A simple spray bottle or plant mister filled with water can do the trick indoors, and spread less water around your office and floor. Though it has less reach, if the cat gets to within two armlengths the spray wil scare it off.
I keep one beside my ironing board to scare off the cats from jumping up on it when the iron is hot.
My own personal natural barrier to unwanted pets is my Great Dane/Labrador mix. He keeps even the door-to-door missionaries out.
Terrible confession. I don’t like dogs either. Neither a cat person nor a dog one! On the plus side I’m a vegan so on balance I reckon I count as a friend to the four-legged more generally…
Screen fabric, a pair of dowels and hanging hardware should work, though cats like to climb screens, so heavy duty screening is recommended.
Hi Tommie! That’s a very good idea, and probably much cheaper than buying a kit for a framed fixed or rolling-blind type of screen, for any open windows one wants to shield.
But if they want to shield both outside doors, wouldn’t screen fabric attached to dowels top and bottom make it rather hard to use the doors as doors? Especially if you are carrying something, if you have to unhook the lower dowel to use the door would be rather an obstacle, I’d think. Or what am I missing?
On my sister’s windows that open in, we made cheap semi-fixed screens ourselves, from screen fabric and 4 pieces of wood, some nails, lots of flat-headed tacks or staples, and 4 magnetic door closers to keep the screen attached to the outside of the windowframe in summer, but detachable so we could take them in for storms and winter.
Then some years later her husband improved on those by sandwiching the screen between two thinner pieces of wood for the frame (so the frame didn’t get any bulkier, but the corners overlapped and were sturdier); with those two wood layers glued and screwed together with the screen in between you don’t need all the tacks and it looks much better. They also are lasting much longer.
On my windows which open outwards (very usual here, though apparently not nearly so common anywhere else), I went with the rolling screen kits on the inside, for ease of access to the window-opening handles.
Hang the top dowel at the outside, twist the bottom dowel and drop it inside, or vice versa.
Perfect!
Thanks Tommie I’ve bought a black fabric hanging net thingy that I just need to attach to my utility room back door, which should at least keep the wasps out that have been visiting lately and fingers crossed perhaps this cat also. I see it a lot in my garden these days prowling about and think I now see the draw – I have a tree with nearby bushes. The birds like my tree and this cat has taken to lurking underneath the bushes and pouncing if the birds come to ground. I saw it try and miss a couple of times… and then later found a decapitated bird corpse. I realise you all ove cats but tbh I’m getting fed up of this one! Was not a lovely job disposing of the little corpse and a bit upsetting too (as I mentioned I’m vegan and it’s been a long time since I’ve even had to handle animal flesh in the form of a hygienically packaged chicken breast or chop). I really hope he finds a new hobby soon!
At least this cat has not formed a personal affection for you. A good hunter only catches about one in every four that it tries for. Cats with an affection for you will try to ‘make sure you are eating right’ by brining you a portion of its catch.
Off topic, but might be of interest to other readers here.
Michelle Sagara West has just posted that DAW is not going to publish the final arc (4-6 very long books) in her Essalien/Averalaan world (so far consisting of the Hunter duology, The Sun Sword series, and the House War series, and a few self-published short stories), that they have published under the Michelle West name for the last two decades.
Here’s her explanation: https://michellesagara.com/state-of-the-author-july-2021-edition-ending-an-era/
She has now started a Patreon to enable her to write them, get them edited and a cover designed etcetera, so she can self-publish them as e-books.
She will probably post an update on Patreon once a month at most, as she does on her blog, and hopes to keep to the usual DAW deadline of one book a year (barring unforeseen circumstances).
Here’s the link to her Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mswest
Well that was fun!
Proge was cleaning the pond filters and repositioning the pipe (?) to the pump. Goes to start the pump and nothing…absolutely nothing. Next day shortens the pipe, well it’s really a semi flexible tube and fixes the filter gizmo at the end that keep the little fishies from being sucked into the pump. (Sometimes they make the journey through pump and filter in one piece, most often not.) He also takes the pump apart, again. It broke down at the beginning of summer and Proge managed to fix it with pond glue and hope, so he did not expect anything good. Fortune smiled; it was a large pebble caught in the works. So, toes crossed, the pond is clearing, the fish are swimming happily. There are five black babies slowly turning orange. I wish we could have black adults, but I think they are to fragile to survive our winters.
Meanwhile I am in a battle with the chipmunks. They have found a new gourmet treat. Hibiscus buds! I have changed the seed area as a start. Will spray with my lemon pepper solution. It keeps the deer away from the hostess and lilies so we’ll see, grasshopper…… we’ll see.
The weather has urned coolish only in the 70º’s, with lots of humidity. It looks like we may be getting several inches of rain in the next few day so I am not going to change the DE in the pool filter as planned. I am going to mask up and do some much needed weed whacking.
Ain’t it fun livin’ on the farm?
So which hostess do you plant? Twinkies? Ding Dongs? Or do you go really rad and grab a society A-lister and bury someone like Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian waist deep? Inquiring minds want to know.
Huh?
Hostas?
Never mind!
😉 [G,D&R]
(Yay! The edit button is back!)
Twinkies all the way! 🤭. BTW in my long ago youth being called a ‘twinkie’ was not a compliment!
Don’t you just love spellcheck?
I know almost nothing about flowers and plants, but I think Paul meant Hostas, when the spellchecker tripped him up? IIRC, those are a kind of flower, but I’m lost beyond that. 🙂
Hey, SmartCat, good to see you as always!
Ahem, “Twinkie” or “Twink” is a term in gay slang and is a compliment, but of course, is quite different from anything used for wonderful women. 😀 (I’m unsure of even mentioning it, but I got a big chuckle out of this. Hope it doesn’t bother anyone.) Sometimes, life is just funny, odd, perplexing, and other times it’s great.
I don’t like the dang spellchecker. It always wants to mess with me, English or otherwise. So I can unfortunately relate to suddenly discovering it has done something very odd for no apparent reason. (Last night, it wanted to turn a word I was typing into “list,” but “st” was the only thing in common with what I had been typing. I don’t recall the (ordinary) word I had been typing, but if I hadn’t looked up, I would’ve missed it. It would have made no sense at all in the sentence, so what I’d meant to type, and then the whole sentence, would have made no sense to anyone, even from inferring from context. As far as I can tell, the spellcheck feature in my word processor and browser are getting worse, not better at predictions, and more intrusive. (Lately, they’ve both taken to respelling in and it with capital I, like the pronoun, if you make any slip, either a pause in typing or an unintended space, so in and it and is can become capitalized for no reason at all.)
I DO know plants, and I don’t have a spell checker, just a dictionary. I spent Thursday mornings for 11 years volunteering at the local rhody garden and have been raising my own hydridized rhodies for over 20 years. I’m beginning to hybridize native Iris tenax I’ve collected. I also grow Acer palmatum, Iris reticulata, douglasiana, & tenax, Scilla siberica, Pushkinia libanotica, Chionodoxa seihei & lucilliae, Cyclamen coum & hederifolium, from seed, divisions, and offsets. Recently, I’ve been processing around 200 pots of bulbs for repotting. (Aspies are not typically dilettantes.) I do know what hostas are, and was not mistaken in my play on words. 😉
That was a fun play on words, Paul!
A clover play on words Paul
I began programming in 1966. One thing I quickly learned: Never, ever trust a computer! A compter can “lie to you with a perfectly straight face”. Even if you KNOW it’s lying, it’s a bugger to find out how the computer is doing it, and force it to tell the truth. A computer will NEVER just do what you meant. NEVER depend on a computer to do something for you that you can do for yourself–it’ll screw-up when your back is turned, leaving you in a pickle. You have to watch it so assiduously, it’s easier to have done it yourself.
Hi Paul, what language were you using then??? I didn’t start till 1980 with first machine code, then Basic, then COBOL, then Pascal, and finally different versions of SQL. I never made the switch to OO and switches to Analysis and finally data modelling. I thought I was fairly prehistoric as my first COBOL code was written on punch cards but I would love to hear your code timeline!
As I was a Chemistry major, i.e. in sciences, “Fortran II, with Format” on an IBM-1620. Amazingly primitive! Amazing what one could do with such a primitive machine. Couldn’t ADD! It did arithmetic by table lookup! But it could add two 1,000 digit integers with ONE instruction! Punched cards on an IBM 026 keypunch, all output was also on punchcards; we had no printer.
p.s. When I built my own IMSAI 8080 in 1976, although the architecture was entirely different, it was more powerful and faster. And I could pick it up! 😉
I was being way too literal-minded or just not paying attention properly. Ordinarily, I should have caught that.
Paul, I didn’t intend to call you out for either misuse or a typo, and I’m sorry it went over my head. — I am making at least twice, maybe more, the number of typos as I used to, because I’m not proofing and correcting enough or in a hurry, and just plain having trouble with this because my eyesight’s so diminished. Which hurts my pride, too. So in all fairness, also, I don’t have room to fuss at anyone over typos, and I hope I did not irritate you.
Heh, I was born in 1966, and yet I can very much agree, computers (and programs) just do what their hardware and software tell them to, and they have no way to “know” when they have an error, usually, if there’s no way for other hardware to detect it, or for software to determine it or take corrective action to report what went wrong where. This is, like you said, why skilled hardware and software technicians (and people in general using their brains and judgment) are needed to keep things working right and keep good decisions going.
(Side note, I’d just seen a YouTube creator complaining (and explaining) another round of odd behavior from YouTube’s various algorithms, in what appeared to him to be a program determining some content was in any way not meeting copyright / fair use or other guidelines for what’s allowed in content on videos posted there.) So apparently, rather than one or a team of human beings using human judgment, it was left to an algorithm that is going overboard, because it has no idea what it’s actually “seeing” or “hearing” as appropriate or inappropriate. It trips up the algorithm for that and gets summarily flagged with no possibility yet for recourse. So YouTube creators are beginning to be affected, getting upset (rightfully) and voicing their concerns. And of course, it takes time for any of that (such as the particular program or module) to be corrected, or for anyone human to actually wake up and realized their recent changes may be buggy, not sufficiently discerning “good” versus “bad” content (within or ourside of various guidelines). Even humans have great trouble agreeing on things like that, so a program attempting to do so, when it has no real power to think, just follows its instructions, is really asking too much of it (or the programmers). Neither here nor there, maybe, but as an example of what you were talking about.
The bit with automated systems taking the path of least resistance and cheesing off anyone who interacts with them on the front-facing end has been going on for years. Sadly having a set of human eyes to interpret problems costs more over time than a program which gets it right about 75% of the time. A corollary to this is that the places which use automated systems to catch problems and apply ‘solutions’ is that if you are in the 25% which has been erroneously flagged, getting someone not-Memorex to actually look at the issue is increasingly harder. Just ask anyone who has ordered something online from a scammy Facebook ad, how hard it is to get your money back and/or get Facebook to boot the offender.
Being an Aspie, it’s pretty hard for the average person to offend me. To get POed, or perhaps that’s PedO, one would have to feel, to care, about some other persons perceptions about one. People have been misperceiving me all my life. They never get it right because they never try to understand–they assume. They’re just not sensible. Best to avoid getting sucked-in. There’s no benefit to caring they’re wrong, again.
Neurotypical people are far too emotional about things and their emotions are often misplaced. I’ve had people get offended that I was not offended. They have emotions about things they have no control over, like somebody else’s idiosyncratic perceptions, and too little control over things they can and should. My Second Law is: “Everything you do communicates.”
I always say, “I don’t care about ‘people’, I care about ‘persons’.” That is a small group!
p.s. Be careful about my Second Law, it’s a two-edged sword!
We have what is called wild rhododendron here. It is a bush or shrub and has small pink and white flowers with a sweet scent. I have also heard it called New England honeysuckle.
There are native species of rhododendrons on the East Coast.
Firstly, a rule: All azaleas are rhodendrons, not all rhododendrons are azaleas. The easily distinguishing differences: azaleas always have 5-lobed flowers, and almost always one stamen per lobe. The other rhododendrons have 5- to 7-lobed flowers, two stamens per lobe, sometimes more. (Best we not get much more specific, it gets complicated!)
R. atlanticum, calendulaceum, flammeum, serrulatum, viscosum, etc.. are generally small-leafed, tubular small flowered, deciduous, & fragrant, azaleas. R. atlanticum might easily be mistaken for a honeysuckle, and is very fragrant, generally white to pinkish flowered. Serrulatum also has a tubular flower that looks much like a honeusuckle. (As one may suppose from the names, calendulaceum & flammeum are in yellows & oranges.) They are azleas, but not the sort one sees at “The Masters”, those are Japanese.
There are a couple common native East Coast native large-leafed, large-flowered, evergreen species rhododendrons, R. catawbiensis, & maximum. They’re also commonly white to pink. They “look like” rhododendrons.
We have a couple native West Coast species, R. occidentale, & macrophyllum.
Mine derive from mosly Himalayan and Yunnan/Szechuan south-western China regions. These regions were never glaciated, fewer ancient species were killed-off.
From your description, these would be atanticums. I have never otherwise encountered a fragrant rhododendron or azalea, and I do wonder why, since these grow wild hither, thither and yon.
Let’s work it out! Why would the plant invest in fragrance? To attract its pollinator. What’s that? Not a bird, they don’t have great senses of smell, except turkey vultures. And that long tubular flower, what’s going to get to the nectary at the bottom? Another clue is they’re open during the day, as opposed to opening at dusk and closing at dawn.
Got it? Obvious, right?
Butterflies and moths! They’ve got great senses of smell, flying LONG distances following a female’s pheromones, and long proboscii, or is that -cuses? With small flowers, in a forest, scent works better than sight.
True, most rhodies, especially the big large trussed evergreen elepidotes (in the Himalayas they become TREES!), are pollinated by birds and don’t need to invest in fragrance. But there ARE exceptions! The fortunei series, for example, have a sweet fragrance, if lighter than the eastern azaleas.
So that’s what I used trying to make my goal, a fragrant yellow elepidote. Got a couple very close, on either side of exactly what I wanted. If I had another 20 years, I could go for refinement with more generations.
Or hummingbirds. Whether they can smell what they’re doing or not, they have long beaks and tongues, and they move very fast compared to butterflies and moths, which kind of bumble through the air.
Hummingbirds can also go places the insects can’t. Hummingbirds are fearless, with good reason: you can’t catch a hummingbird unless it wants to be caught; and they’re seemingly smart enough to accept help if they need it.
A possibility, certainly, but hummingbirds are known to be attracted to the sight of RED, and then we’re back to the original question: why would the plant waste resources on manufacturing fragrance? It’s still insects.
As a member of the ARS, I’m made aware of many things associated with rhodies through JARS. Among them was that pollen has been documented on butterfly wings. See: https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/06/epps-butterfly/
That’s the thing about Science, speculations must be confirmed by observations in nature, and experimentation when possible.
Hello, all. I’m kinda-sorta back, but things are still basically status quo. Herewith:
The latest word from the local friend had been that he was going to work something out for my upcoming apt. lease renewal here, we’d get that resolved, as there are not better options locally for lower rent on apartments or houses.
He left a note when he had come by and didn’t raise me. I’m at a loss to know how that could be, as I was right here all that day. I would have thought I would hear a knock at either door, even if I was busy in the kitchen, in the bathroom, whatever. I wrote an email but haven’t seen a reply to that, now over a week ago. But I thought, well, all right, I can quit worrying that my sorry butt will be out on the street or hustled off to some new place to live, although hey, if there were some sustainable better place to live, great! So I was, on the one hand a little relieved and even had this fond daydream / wild wish of unpacking everything and getting it straightened out and maybe even tackle the storage space, and — versus feeling still completely stuck, motionless, in a situation I can’t seem to work myself out of, without things being resolved. — And so I’ve been fighting some very bad malaise, depression, and my own bad eyesight plus personal weak spots in getting things done.
However, aside from sleeping in some days, or not sleeping some nights, partly due to weird apartment life (neighbors are not terrible, but they are also at least as weird as I am, and I am not the only one with lease trouble.) — I’ve had a small burst of creativity towards writing, but well, that is still very idiosyncratic and hit or miss, not any one story. And this should be something I should be able to overcome. I do not understand what is blocking me from progress on story-writing. — I do know some of it is growing up with my particular issues, the handicap plus having had trouble with being gay. So, well, I have written some things, fiction, on that, but it is a mess. I’m not sure what anyone else would make of it, because I don’t know what to make of it, and…not complete stories there either. (Nuts, I know there is gay fiction and straight pulp romances and so on, but I seem to wander into side-notes and other things, so that, well, again, I don’t know if anyone else would ever want to read that, and personal issues keep trying to intrude, or work themselves out, or not work themselves out.)
I have had a couple of times where I’ve put down new ideas towards science fiction stories, but those have been just starting points or scenes, ideas or fragments. — So although this is better than no productivity or creativity at all, it is also not helping me toward income, or resolving anything personal, or finished stories. It’s…it’s just me, I guesss. I keep thinking somehow, I’ll get back on some idea, new or old, and that will get me on track, or I’ll work out whatever is blocking me in at least one area, enough to make more progress and get past some level. — I don’t have a significant other / boyfriend / whoever, either long-term or temporary. And I have some kind of blockage going on there, I think. If I did have someone, it might work itself out some, or at least start to. I say this in the midst of a global crisis that’s had me and everyone else isolated for a year and a half, right? — I am not sure I’d know what to do if I did have someone. (OK, I do have ideas, I may be repressed and shy and practically a hermit, but er, well, I’m human I do have some idea how that’s supposed to work.) Heh. But relationships are not easy for me, from how I grew up. So… yeah.
Well, I got a note and a visit from the management office, saying I’m again behind on the rent and this must be resolved. He said my friend needs to come by to pay, and they need more information, and yes, my lease is up and I need to renew (or not, and move). He said they need more information for rent assistance. — I explained my cell phone is still in need of reset and restore to work again, but the service issues still there, and so on. I explained I do have some money, but that needs to be set up with the office in order for me to do that. He said, yes, fine, please have my friend come by this week, and I said I had emailed him but had not heard back, and I’d email him again tonight, which I’ve now done. — So…well, this most recent round of staffers have at least been reasonable, have listened, have done a little bit to help, but things are still up in the air. I _still_ do not have confirmation whether that / those applications for assistance went through (submitted or approved) or whevetever happened to those that Mr. Patel had done last December and into January. (I thought I had his email, but I don’t. I do have his cell number, but no phone working, so…aarrgh.)
Ugh, this whole thing is like some massivey entangled spaghetti comedy-of-errors or farce. I can’t quite tell if it’s a tragedy or a comedy. And…I’m having trouble keeping motivated, doing anything, and my eyesight is driving me nuts. (I have severe trouble now reading black text on a white page or screen. I am still managing, but trying to fill out paperwork on screen or on paper is…maddening in an unprintable expletive-filled and very disheartening way. (I have never liked some tedious forms of paperwork, despite that I used to be a good, skilled proofreader / copyeditor and did layout and design, graphics, typesetting, what used to be desktop publishing when that was the 80’s and 90’s buzzword.) But when I try to do official bureaucratic paperwork now, between my eyesight and patience…I also get overwhelmed and sort of freeze up, as if I’m panicky. I should be able to get past that. I have some things to complete, and hope I can get to them. I’m still disorganized. I’m lucky I’m functional. Not feeling very functional, though. And my attitude needs work.
I’m up every day, but it feels like I’m just repeating and existing. I get excited sometimes, I get bursts of creativity sometimes. I do laugh and enjoy some things. But I am really struggling. — And it’s very quiet around here most of the time, but with bursts of activity from other apartments or occasionally people are outside. Even the kids and teens are not out much at all. I think the other apartments are indeed occupied. I know the ones immediately around me are. And tonight, I know the office staffer promptly knocked on two other neighbors’ doors to talk to them about rent or other issues, so I am not at all the only one in this. But I hardly ever hear my neighbors to get to know them. One woman who’s been here longer than I have goes outside with her dogs and scolds them regularly. We’ve met, I think I remember her first name right but not her last name, and I don’t know if her family and kids are still there. With any of my neighbors, it’s as though we always miss each other coming or going, and I have about given up on trying. There are occasional fights (domestic / family / neighbor quarrels) but that’s not too frequent. — But I’m maybe one of few white tenants, and although I hope my neighbors know I’m friendly, that can be hard to get past; I know how they feel too. Lack of Spanish fluency is still ap problem for me. (I’m sure Im making typos.) Most of my neighbors are Latinos or black. People are making it somehow. Things sometimes shock me, but I grew up sheltered, middle class, a white boy. Anyway, I still have not figured out how much is my own personality and how much is my neighbors, and maybe I’m just over-sensitive. But I feel I don’t really know anyone and don’t have friends around here.
I’m hoping to hear from that local friend so things can get resolved. I would so love to have a life where I am not constantly worried about the next bad news, alack of money or income. And as unused to living with anyone as I am now, I wish I had family and friends, people to live with and rely on, so I’m not so dang alone. — Very honestly, the friends here who have helped me and emailed and written me have been very much appreciated, and better than some of my previous friends or family. (I never heard back or got mail returned from relatives in Oklahoma, so I have no idea if they got my letters or what’s going on. Local former friends I wrote to last year, half had moved, one friend had passed away (not the virus). So…. I am at a loss. I am doing OK most days, not OK some others. I’m used to being alone, but that’s not a good thing to be too alone. — And I even wonder if I’d get too attached or read things into it with new friends, if I could live with someone. (That’s probably silly, but I’ve been alone too much, and not having had a couples relationship…I don’t know, but it’s also silly to worry about that. It just says I want that too.)
So I am a mess and it’s still that way. Hoping the immediate problem gets solved and then some more, so maybe I can get to solve some things and not be worried every month about rent, a place to live, the most basic things.
One very good thing: Tomorrow will be 3/4 of a year since Brindle arrived on my doorstep. She is very much a cat who walks by herself, but then she’ll remember she wants attention, she kinda likes me, and oh, she’s always up for food or treats. (She’s not yet truly overweight, but she’s too near that.) On November 5th, it will be one year since she showed up. I think she was around 6 weeks old then, but I count from when she arrived. — So I have a weird cat, but I love her, and she loves me in her own inscrutable cat way. She perplexes me. — But three times in the past two months, she managed to get past me and get out the door, and (very thankfully) each time, she decided that cars in the parking lot or someone she did not know in the square / pool area, were very good reasons to scramble right back inside, instead of playing hid-enad-seek and staying out over a day, like she had just before she got spayed (neutered). So I have been very thankful not to lose her that way. But I try my best to close the door if she’s in the bedrooms if someone knocks, so she doesn’t run out. Heh. — I am very glad to have her. I miss Goober, I miss the others, but until I get my cell phone working again, I can’t consider looking for a second cat. — I have only rarely heard any cats outside since April when they were (I think) cleared out by the previous management. — I have also been reluctant to get a second cat because my situation feels so precarious. Brindle, I think would benefit from a companion cat and I know I’d like to. But for now that’s only a wish. — Brindle showed up when I didn’t expect a cat, so who knows? 🙂
Uh, no knight in thing armor nor any trusty, friendly squire or stable boy or…whoever…. has ever shown up on my doorstep to profess undying affection, and uh, I’m not sure what I’d think if f one did whom I didn’t know, so…. LOL, yeah, but it’s a nice dream, right? LOL.
I hope you all are doing fine. I have some blog reading to catch up on, about a page here.
Hi there BCS, nice to see you posting again. When I get overwhelmed I try to write a list of everything I need to do, just in any order the thoughts present and then I work through the list to see whether a has to be done before I can do b and c. Easy things with no dependency on other things I underline and tick off as I do them – I try to get at least one done as soon as I’ve finished the list just to get off the blocks. The things with long chains of a then b then c then d… well it’s obvious what the priority is and if I’ve not done it yet there’s a reason, right? It sounds like getting a phone going is a key action for you. Is your phone broken and needing fixing, a subscription lapsed or do you need a new phone? Have you considered just getting a second hand one cheap that is just-good-enough? What are you posting from, could that not be used to book your vaccination? Sometimes we all get a bit linear when we have problems and need to do some lateral thinking (I’m very prone to fixed thinking myself so I’m not preaching from a great position). In terms of loneliness… again, is whatever you’re posting from capable of zoom? There are some great opportunities, whilst you’re waiting for your jab to work, to join chats and groups for some social interaction. My local art gallery for instance runs discussions on 1 or 2 pieces in its collection every week and our uni likewise has some free summer seminars running. Maybe you could find one relevant to writing that might inspire you?
I started writing a reply about the cell phone and mailbox, but then somehow got myself on a tangent that was trying to turn into my life story, just about. Ah, while that might do for venting or might be fine enough, it didn’t need to be taking up space here. I’ve saved it, just because, to my own files. Not sure why I went into life-story brain-dump there, but at least I realized I had gone way, way off tangent.
Apparently, I am wa amore frustrated about the dang cell phone and mailbox and so on than I had thought, and just really needed to blow off steam and go into personal stuff.
The iPhone isn’t broken, it’s just stuck in the reset and restore process, because I can’t see the setup screens well enough, so I’ve somehow entered passcode, password, and so on, with typos or in the wrong spots too many times, so that it thinks I must be some terrible person or have improper hygiene or smell of elderberries or some such. — It may require reset and restore again to wipe whatever I’ve messed up. And it may require reconfirming my passwords in the various places they need to go, to prove I’m still indeed me, the owner of my own iPhone. But tis will require someone who can actually see tiny text and type without typos in sensitive input boxes. (I am sure of my old passwords and usernames for what should be needed for the setup and restore from backup. But I”ve screwed something up so it thinks I should be locked out or need to be reconfirmed, or else I’m simplyy in error somewhere. — It should be an easy fix, but it might require redoing the setup and the restore it did not get through. So that could take only a. few minutes or it might take a while. — It isn’t broken. I think it failed to recognize something or I just couldn’t read it right. I can’t seee tin text well enough and some coors are hard for me to see now. I used to have very good color vision, but the cataracts are progressing.
If that friend can get over here, it can get resolved. My cell phone service is paid up fine. It’s just not designed with anyone with less than perfect vision (or nearly blind) in mind. No way in the setup screens to have it read aloud or change font size or colors, so what I could do just fine by myself if I could read it, I can’t without getting someone to do it for me. yippee. — The iOS update happened in mid-June, so I’ve been without a working phone that long. It is a very nice-looking paperweight.
my P.O. Box key stopped working after a change to the facings, even though supposedly there’s been no change to the locks or the facings. (so why is there a new, differently-burnished front there? LOL.) And the office can’t seem to walk a new key over to me, they think no change was made, and when my friend went over before, neither the office staff nor he got me, to test the office’s copy of the key, or my two copies, to confirm they don’t work or that a new key was or wasn’t issued or is now needed. — The P.O. Boxes are from the USPS, therefore Federal property. The apt. office has keys to distribute to the tenants. So if locks are re-keyed, they should get an updated copy and issue it to the current tenant, and they should be aware of the status. If a key wears out or breaks, or the lock is worn out, then that wold need the post office to do a re-key and lock replacement.
So if my friend can get over here and get me to the office, and they and I can check the mailbox to show them it isn’t working, or get anew key, then they can get a new lock and key if need be. But that should be an easy fix, either right then or else a few days if the postal service has to redo the lock. — But m friend was supposed ot have been by and this was supposed to have been discussed and up for resolution. And yet neither he nor the office have been by to see me about its the staffer didn’t seem to know it still wasn’t done or that there had been a change in the facings (front plate) of the bank of mailboxes.
I still think it’ll be easy to solve. Sigh. — What I do know is, neither my usual key nor my spare key now work in the lock. I tried on two visits, the first with the one key, l the second with both keys. It’s the right box, it’s my key and my box, it only fits one way, not the other, and neither key work anymore. I’ve been her 4.5 years, but it stopped working around the first week of June. Yes, it’s been two months now.
If you’e noting a hint of irritation, well, yes.
I wish I could order some new friends from Amazon. Or elsewhere. I’ve heard one can, but that there is another word for that and it’s generally regarded as a somewhat dubious, and possibly expensive, thing. Ahem. I’m about to the point where I’d sell myself if anyone would buy me. — OK, OK, maybe not so funny. But oh, in a way, I’m about to that point. Or at least I can joke about it.
(Han, and if any online places could sell you a personal assistant, either android or clone, or perhaps an, ah, corporale slave, well…they would probably do it, and there’d probably be lots of buyers.)
Setting aside the many and troubling moral / ethical issues with that, and preferring the humorous intent, there’s also, I guess, the question of, what if somebody _wanted_ to work like that? Maybe some would find that a better life than what they had? Hmm, but I’m maybe too prone to look at those big moral and ethical issues, once I got past the offhand joke. Geez, I think I like the joke better. The reality there sounds…eek. — Nuts, I was only trying to make a fun joke, but I’ve stepped in it for my own humor. Shoot. I’m sorry. I’d a lot rather make a good joke than wind up feeling like I’d said the wrong thing. Maybe I’m being too sensitive? Maybe not.
Maybe I just need a better situation, so I’m not so sour.
Gee, the post I’d set aside was not that acerbic and curmudgeon. I don’t know why I’m channeling Mark Twain, as brilliant as he was at times.
It’s 1:11pm. No word from anyone. I sent my email around 6:00 to 6:30 yesterday evening.
I hope that friend doesn’t get me in trouble with the apartment office.
How do I get on the next starship off this mud ball? Is there some eager young space cadet who’d like a hot mess of a guy like me? Sigh.
I hope I’ll have some better news soon.
Brindle has now been with me for 3/4 of a year. On Nov. 5th, it will be one year. I’m so glad to have her.
Somehow, we are still OK. Mostly. It could be much worse. Some days, I have to remind myself of this.
Best Wishes, everyone, and don’t mind my sour mood. I’m frustrated as much with my own web spots as with the local friend or the office or my cousin in-state, or my lack of a good supportive friend network.
Take care, everyone. I’m not much fit for company, I guess. Thought I was making a bright remark, a funny joke, but dang. My mood overall needs to be better. Y’all be good. It’s rough out there. Go hug somebody, please.
Just a bit worried about you BCS… and being a busy body by nature can’t help seeing if there’s an end to the tangle of wool that if pulled might help the ball come undone. I’m not an expert and I don’t know what version of iPhone you have or if you could connect to a pc or laptop but Apple support have all kinds of advice about key sequences to press or procedures to run to get your phone back up and running https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204306
:hugs: iota, thank you. — It’s not the device, it’s my eyes that are the problem point, for the phone, I just plain cannot see the setup screens well enough to know at what points I’m not getting it right. I believe I’ve somehow tripped up its number of retries that trigger it locking out the user, to require the user to verify (elsewhere, through some other method) that they are the valid person with the correct passwords / information, or to change those after verifying, if needed.
The setup screens are a whole series involving one’s numeric passcode to unlock the phone (or to reset that passcode if needed), one’s wifi router name from those available nearby and the password for that, to connect to the internet, various other user ID’s and passwords, and I believe the phone number is known from the unit itself. But if, for example, you make an error too many times, bright red text on a white background can pop up to prompt you you’ve made a mistake on an input box. Alll the text is too small for me, even with my best magnifying glass (and trying to juggle everything and type) and that brightest red, and some other colors, are no longer easy for me to distinguish, and some barely show up at all for me now. It’s the cataracts. It’s like looking through a frosted window or a fog or a cloudy drink, like you put a few drops of milk in a glass of water, or like looking through fog, are the best analogies I can think of. I’m not color-blind, I used to have _very_ good color perception, but now, for instance, the small bright red text on white, very common for error messages, the text is badly visible to me. Dark blue can seem black, certain areas in between blue and green or orange and purple are hard for me to distinguish the hue (is that orange or pink, is that where in between blue, cyan, and green?) and so on.
It’s readily solvable, I feel sure; it just needs a properly sighted person to read through, I can tell them the data, they enter it, and we should be fixed up fine. Or reset the thing with the button combination to do that (which I learned) and do so. Or also, as I suspect, find where to go to have it unlock the blockage on a given password for the phone, so I can continue in the setup process. So it’s something I have a good idea of how to solve, which points are or may be in error, and how to fix it. I just need a pair of good eyes and someone fluent enough in e
English, as well as mostly trustworthy enough to walk through all that entry of passwords, and it should be fixable. — And it of course bothers me that I feel sure I could do it if I could just see or hear it to do so myself. :-/
But yees, thanks for being concerned bout it. — Oh, I’ll be sending another email to the local friend to shake his tree once again (and hope it’s not getting sent to his spam folder by mistake, sigh).
@chondrite — Thank You! I finally got access to my P.O. Box (halfway), at least enough to get out the backlog of mail. (See below.) So I got the cat collar and travel toothbrush you sent, however many weeks ago! Geez….) Thank you! Brindle will like the new collar when I change it out next. 🙂 And if and when I get to be out and about again, the trail toothbrush is much needed and welcome, since my regular toothbrush won’t fit in the usual tubes, just a baggie or the like.
Aha! Today, the much-underappreciated postman came by my door with a package and to say, hey, your box is stuffed full and hasn’t been accessed in forever, you need to clean it out. So I explained what was wrong. And Lo, he was kind enough to walk me back to it, open the bank of boxes, and retrieve the backlog stuffed in there. Hurray! He was also kind enough to explain that, at least for these, the apartment complex maintains the box locks, the post office has a master key to the whole bank and the carrier opens it, slots in mail to all the boxes in whatever fashion, and then locks it all back up, neat and tidy. But for this apt complex at least, the complex is responsible for re-keying locks if needed, and maintaining tenant and office copies of the keys. So it’s their duty, not the USPS’s, to solve my key problem. I explained what was going on, and I thanked him very much for his help. Oh boy, did I ever! So, although I think it’s still unsolved, I now know for sure what needs doing.
Since I was in the middle of things, I didn’t have my keys and ID, and didn’t think of it until at the mailboxes. So I didn’t then re-test to see if simply unjamming the box may have solved my access problem. I will go do that tomorrow morning.
But if, as I suspect, the keys have indeed stopped working, and the lock needs to e changed and new keys issued, then that will mean a delay with my tardy friend and the mgmt. office to get it done. But hey, all right, that is doable. If only I can generate motion at those two points and then get them to do it and get the keys to me.
If my keys now work because the box is no longer literally, physically, so full that it was stuck, then hey, we may be good.
But for right now, I have all my backlog of mail, I’ve thrown out all the junk mail (the wads of grocery store and other weekly circulars, taking up over 75% of the volume, and so I’m in a much better state for that.
No visit or reply from the friend. No further note or fussing from the office, but if the friend doesn’t come by, that will happen again.
One item of mail did not get to me, so I’ll have to reorder a spare for my graphics tablet stylus (pen), specific to that model of tablet, of course. But that can wait until in the week to order.
I’m awaiting cat food and treats; still fine on dry food, though. it will soon be time to order groceries again. Somehow, they keep getting eaten up! Haha.
So…at least a bit of backlog is solved, but the issues still remain to be permanently fixed. I’m counting it a win.
One other place to add to your list of helpful connections:
https://www.hudexchange.info/grantees/tx-700/
They help Houston-area people with getting and keeping housing; they might be able to help you straighten out the tangle with your rental office.
Thanks, Chondrite. I will back to trying to sort and manage things Monday, such as mail received and backlog…and another email to the friend. :-/
At least the current batch of office staff have been more reasonable in listening and working with me than the one young lady who had been causing trouble earlier thiss year. So it seems like there ought to be a way through it, and then to get onto other things again to sort through what might ultimately (oh please) solve things.
— Something reminded me of a few friends from back in. junior high and high school, and that felt good. It also struck me how my attitude, outlook, was better back then. Less word-weary experience, I guess. But I want to hang onto that a little and see if maybe I can get back a little of that part of me that’s been so buried under a wet blanket and gloom-and-doom for so long. That sunnier, more optimistic and happier, more innocent part of me who loved foreign things, was more open toile in general, and not so put-upon…I want that part of me back in charge, and I want the depress or pessimistic part to take a hike. It’s not helping me feel any better or do better. And I still don’t know what’s got me not up to what should be my usual self, or what was that self before, anyway.
There’s also a specific memory there. A chain of memories reminded me of when a Chinese immigrant friendd from junior high and into college, was first learning English and getting to know kids here. He wrote down my name, Ben, as he heard me say it into the Chinese character, and I think that’s a word for horse. I used to know how to copy the character. 🙂 (But I thought from later reading that the main word is “ma” with whatever tone is used.) So I’m going to see if Google Translate will show me the character. (Maybe I have it confused, too long ago.) I know his Chinese name and the English first name he took, but (haha) trying to get results from Google or YouTube results in way too many unrelated hits. The last I’d known back when I used to be registered at a reunion site, classmates had said he was in the Southeast Asian Pacific as a banker. Whether that says anything about how he ultimately felt with the USA versus Chinese culture, I don’t know. He
Americanized, went to college here, probably did fine. Back when I’d looked, I tried to email him but never got a reply. Probably the spam filter didn’t know what to do with that. But it reminded me just now of that time. — I rarely ran into anyone from high school and I didn’t hear from anyone, and life moved on. I hope those folks ae all doing fine. Hard to believe it’s been so long. But this time, 40 years ago, I would have been about to start my sophomore year of high school. — I’m now the age my parents were when I was nearly out of college for the first time. And I find that in some ways, that makes me understand them better, and in others, I wonder how they could be how they were about some issues, when I am so different about them, and I feel pretty young, and they weren’t that “old” yet. Life is such a strange path sometimes, so filled with such good things and such bad things. I am not sure how I’ve gotten through, the past several years, but I have. Barring anything sudden, I should have anywhere from 10 to 45 more years to go. So, dang, I want things to be better.
I’m going to watch a movie or listen to a book tonight. For now, I want to try to write some.
For some time, I have been thinking how I wish I could go back in time, sit my younger self down, and explain some things he needed to know, in hopes he could do better than I did then. I don’t know if that would work, but it seems like it would be worth a try. But just now, I find myself thinking, that school kid, junior high and high school, might have a few things to tell me that my current self needs to hear and has somehow forgotten or discounted. That happier self, for instance. I still have ambitions, hopes, some optimism, but I’m too often fighting current problems or my own weak spots or depression / attitude issues. So maybe that younger self from a fw points along the way would have some things I need to hear now and for my future, just like there are things he / they needed to hear back then for a better life. — It’s too bad we can’t do that. There’s no DeLorean or Tardis or fancy starship handy around to do that. We still have to figure it out at every point along the way and face the consequences. If there are multiverses, alternate realities, in which we are doing / did those different things, well, good (or bad?) for them, but in our real-world, we never get that. Whatever the “Dream-Time” or dream-world is, I’ve never figured out how it does anything either. It has been years since I could lucid-dream or direct my dreaming, and even the ability to remember my dreams often hasn’t been there, since after my mom died. (In grieving, I think I shut it off somehow due to bad dreams then that freaked me out.) So…just musing on things. Nothing very specific, just in a thoughtful mood. But todayy has been better than yesterday. I feel better, more centered today.
Have a good weekend, everyone! :hugs:
hi BCS. Chondrites above mentioned Houston? I’m not very familiar with US geography ( and the distances between places always seems huge to me living in a small country like England) but I did a search for Houston charities for the visually impaired and the result set also included lots of hits from Texas. https://acbt-houston.net/links.aspx Seems to be a list of resources for the visually impaired, some of whom might be able to point you to a trustworthy v9lunteer who could be your eyes and help you get your phone back in action. As you’re not vaccinated I’m not sure if you could get to one of these places in person – there seems to be a useful place called the lighthouse in Houston, if that is the right area for you? It may be useful to make contact with the support networks they seem to signpost to and might even be a potential source of new friends…
I found something I think is nifty while browsing online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAh9NRGNhUU
Yeah, Finland is well known for its hard rock and heavy metal bands, including those fantastical get-ups.
It’s not my taste, but for those who like it, taking a look for Finnish rock bands or heavy metal may be worthwhile.
I wonder how they can perform so energetically, under those hot stage lights, in such very heavy make-up and costumes!
Fan devotion and good pay 😀 can go a long way towards helping with uncomfortable work conditions.
Speaking of ‘uncomfortable’, the air conditioning at the library broke yesterday. It will be sometime next week before anyone can look at it. We left the top windows open overnight , but it’s a big cement box which retains heat very well 🙁 It’s 86F (30 C) right now inside the building, at 11:15 in the morning, and ridiculously humid. We got permission to close at noon.
If you like their music, I just encountered an oddity you might like to take a quick look at: Motörhead’s Ace of Spades played on church bells and guitar! at the church tower festival near my aunt, last month.
Tommie, Hanneke, and others — Cool, I will listen and look at that. 🙂
A few years back, I found Sigur Rós, an Icelandic post-rock / alternative band, with some very ethereal vocals and violin techniques, with other instruments. It’s odd, maybe an acquired taste, but I like it. While I don’t always go in for heavy metal, I listen to various things and like trying new music.
Yikes, Chondrite and Spence. — I feel for you. It’s been unseasonably cooler almost all summer here, while everywhere else has been disastrously hotter, sometimes hotter than our above-average summers. We keep getting rain and moderating factors from the Gulf Coast, which is odd. Tommie and others along the coastal states may be getting it too. — Hearling about 100’s F in Canada and Europe and melting glaciers at the North and South Poles….aaiiee.
Just now outside, for the first time in months, I heard a small dog barking at a cat who was screeching back. I had to check on Brindle to make sure she couldn’t dart out and get lost. But then I went out and called, and no cat appeared. (Not that they would if they’re new or were scared by the cull back in April.) I haven’t actually _seen_ any cats out and about since then, but have rarely heard a meow, or thought I did. So this was the first definite sign. Whether it’s a neighbor’s cat or an old or new stray or feral, I don’t know. But I’ll try to keep aware. I still miss the friendly old tomcat, Mystic, who kept wanting out rather than to stay in. I know he had other people who fed or looked out for him. But no sign of him since April. Brindle narrowly missed being caught up when she got out before being spayed. So I will try to be aware, in case the cat (or kittens?) needs help, but this first time yielded no results. So no idea if it’s one from before, or new, or belongs to someone. — Still just Brindle and myself. She was around me more today than she has been in a week. I dunno what’s up, but I’m glad she wants to be with me a bit more. (Still just her cat-who-walks-by-herself self, though.)
dito
I feel for you Chondrite. The switch to the fuse box on the side of my house went bad and my A/C went out. It was nearly 110 outside and in the low 100s in the house. A friend helped me repair it.
Another old fashioned trick is to water your roof.
A slightly more modern trick is to keep Blue Ice packs in your freezer. (They are sealed artificial reusable “ice” packs.) In addition to keeping the freezer cold in a power failure and being handy for a picnic, you can seal a room and one of the packs will start condensing humidity into distilled water. More needed for larger rooms, of course. And be careful with the distilled water: it’s very pure, so very effective in catalyzing(?) rust and corrosion; a tip from my plumber.
Cold packs! Did I save those or throw them out when I was expecting a precipitous move? I don’t know. I’d better check.
I didn’t find an audiobook version of The Forgotten Door, by Alexander Key. I may see if I can get through the ebook version with very enlarged font-size.
I may be earlier than three weeks, but I went ahead and ordered some groceries, because I’m almost out of a few items. I am sure there are others, but I didn’t make a list of everything, so it’s just the key items I’d remembered, and anything else will need to wait.
I couldn’t recall if I had extra razor refills, and I knew I’d need shaving cream soon. So a new razor, extra refill blades, and a twin pack of shaving cream, and dang, prices have gone up. It apparently wasn’t through Amazon Fresh / Whole Foods, and I’m still minus my local store, so just one razor with refills, one pack of refills, and the shaving cream was, dang, over $100 bucks with shipping. — Should I reconsider the Grizzly Adams or ZZ Top look? Heheh. Possibly only half-kidding. :-/ Periodically, I’ve been shaving my head. So it’s been about four weeks since I did that last, and it’s about crewcut length on top and could be trimmed on the sides, if I could ever figure out how to do that without it looking like I lost a fight with a weed whacker. LOL. — When my hair gets too long over my ears or neck or forehead, it bothers me, so I have never gone beyond the only slightly shaggy look I had a couple of times in college. I have wondered at times if I could let it grow to the length needed for a short queue or ponytail gathered at the nape. So far, I’ve never been able to withstand the annoyance long enough to let it grow out to find out. 😀 But I think this would be fine, even if it’s not presently in style for most men and boys. Uh, I never had a crewcut even as a kid. It was always the very traditional short sides, slightly longer top, only a little longer in the 80’s when boys all wore their hair in that “feathered wings center part” style (see classic BSG).
Hurray, Groceries arrived fine, but lucky I heard them, no knock, I wouldn’t have known.
Prices going up have me wondering again how much longer it will be before we have to have a re-valuation and new currency, or drop the coinage and have higher denomination paper money.
I wonder if we’ll end up using little tokens with a small bit of real metal.
Back in the 1980’s, Mexico’s currency devalued so much that they issued new coinage and paper money, something like 100 times the difference, and people turned in or used up the old coinage and bills, and they were collected by the banks to be recycled.
We’re about to that point now, where US coins are worth more as metal than as the coins, and even 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s in dollars are more like what the cents (coins) were either when my parents were kids or when I was a kid.
I’ve heard one of the main obstacles is in replacing all the coin-operated machines, for the new or old sizes (diameters and thickness) of coins, to prevent false returns and exchanges.
It’s also a mental shake-up to think we might be carrying around coins for dollars instead of cents. But I’ve always thought It made no sense (pardon the bad pun) for a dime to be smaller than a penny or a nickel. And we don’t have a size between a quarter or the dollar or half-dollar that makes sense. — Plus, why do we still have the two dollar biller the half-dollar or dollar, which I don’t ever see circulated. (A couple of years ago, I asked at the bank to get some half-dollars and they said they didn’t give them out. I was very puzzled.) I don’t think I’ve seen a dollar coin in ages, except as a collector coin.
So…I don’t suppose it will happen until they absolutely can’t avoid not doing it, the way things operate these days.
I’ve seen the Japanese solution was to switch to integers, no decimal monetary values, and they use coins for small amounts of yen, with steel or aluminum or something for the lowest-value coins. We might be headed there. But without pennies or nickels, dimes, or quarters, or the half-dollars I remember as a rare treat as a kid, haha, things would sure seem different for a while.
Different sizes of paper money (length or width) would help vision-impaired folks, though. I think I’d read one country puts either Braille or some other embossed raised markings on theirs to make it easy for people handling money by touch, like teller and chaser clerks.
The Euro banknotes have such markings, as the quote below, from Wikipedia, lists.
Features for the blind and visually impaired include:
– Different sizes of the banknotes – the bigger the value, the larger the note.
– The banknotes have clearly contrasting, striking colours. The €5 note is grey, the €10 note red, the €20 note blue, the €50 note orange, the €100 note green, the €200 note yellow-brown and the €500 note is purple.
– Large numerals for the denomination.
– Raised print.
– Tactile marks on the €200 and €500 of the first series, and on all the notes of the Europa series that started circulation in 2013.
As in the design process of the first series of euro notes, visually impaired users were consulted during the design phase of the Europa series, and their requirements were included in the final designs.
The EU has very good sense in some things. It would be great if the US did better about it. — I’m still generally fine about it, but for blind and impaired folks it can be a real problem, and those differences truly would help clerks who deal with money every day, also.
LOL, for some reason, my mind wants to have cognitive dissonance over whether coins with dollar values would mean we’d have a 20 coin (1/5th) instead of a 25 (1/4). Silly. And would we switch which president gets on which denomination, since that is different on the coins versus the bills/notes? Does it matter much? Would they still be “copper / red cents” and “nickels”? — I wonder ow many years it will be before we see any change at all, so I suppose it’s a thought-experiment anyway. — But maybe this is a little like how the Brits felt when they changed to decimal currency in the 50’s or 60’s.
When we changed from guilders to euros, we went from 1, 5, 10, 25 cent and 1 and 2,5 guilder coins to coppery 1, 2, 5, steely 10 and 20 eurocent, and bi-colored 1 and 2 euro coins. Bills start at 5, as they did before.
After a few years, the 1 and 2 cent coins stopped being in general use in quite a few of the European countries. Shops put up signs that they rounded up or down at the till to the nearest 5 cents in cash, to save time for the cashiers and in counting the take at the end of the day and when depositing it at the bank. By now, those signs are gone because it’s been so long that everyone just expects it; the 5 cent coins (the last of the dark copper coloured ones) are now getting a bit more rare.
Shops often won’t accept 1 and 2 cent coins, as depositing them at the bank costs them money – banks charge a fee for counting those.
Prices and digital transactions are still accurate in cents, prices like 1.98 instead of 2.00 are still very common (that price includes the VAT – sellers calculate the taxes due on an article and set the price for the article so the final price looks attractive to the customer; no mental arithmetic necessary for the buyers). Paying digitally with a bankaccount chipcard has become very common; even market stalls often have mobile pincard readers, so paying in cash is becoming a lot less common – to the point that a lot of people have hardly any cash on hand.
The one consequence of switching from 25 cent and 2,5 guilder coins to 20 eurocent and 2 euro coins is that it stil is most natural for me (and older people in general) to think in quarters (1/4, 1/2, 3/4) when dividing things, while this is less of an automatic habit for younger kids who didn’t grow up with early arithmetic books with sums about cents, dimes and quarters. For them, dividing in quarters is the same as thirds or fifths, rather than a preferred option.
In the 1920s, German inflation got to one or two trillion to one. I used to have some billion or trillion mark postage stamps from the period.
US coins haven’t been their apparent metal for a long time. They’re all alloys made to look like copper, nickel, etc. US currency is colored, subtly; but going to variable sizes would cause problems with a lot of “infrastructure” from wallets to cash registers to ATM machines; and people would hate the change.
Japanese yen used to be divided into 100 sen, not related to cent. This was dropped some time ago. Oddly the only pure Japanese coin is the 1 yen, 100% aluminum; The 1¥ coin is very distinctively light. Sometimes they mint commemerative coins out of pure metals. Coins are 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 yen, ranging roughly from 1¢ to $5, the US$ usually being worth 5-10% more than 100¥. The 1-500 ¥ coins increase in size and weight, and the 5¥ and 50¥ coins have central holes, allowing them to be easily distinguished; the coins are also distinguished by their edges, like US coins.
The change in the penny happened midway through 1982. You can tell whether an ’82 penny is copper or plated zinc by dropping it on a concrete or tile floor. The copper will “ring”, the zinc “thud”.
108.5F reported by a nearby online weather station Thursday that’s in an aspect like mine, cleared rural land west of Portland. 80F at midnight I was in air-conditioned doctor’s offices all afternoon, first as my sister got some injections in her knees, then as I got another lumbar spine injection. Two showers this evening to get rid clean. Oh, no, just one last evening, this is Friday morning!
FiL in New Jersey sweltering in 107 degrees yesterday. This is, I believe, the first time on record that East Coasters are actually looking forward to winter.
eta: Global climate change will probably alter shoulder seasons for tourists. It may be that whereas summertime was travel time previously, spring and fall become much more interesting because summer and winter weather extremes are just — too extreme.
I’d guess holidays will stay in Summer because no one will want to pay the cooling bills. OTOH, many places could install roof solar, shade the school, and power the A/C.
I think most of us have heard about palm tree, cycads, and dinosaur fossils around the Arctic Circle many millions of years ago in one of the warm periods. I know I have, I’m a sucker for a documentary, as you might have guessed. The thing I’ve never seen, heard mentioned, is what the climate was like down closer to the equator. 200F? Anybody else have?
@Paul, I have not researched this, but in an unexpected coincidence I just read something about that, in a book review of the non-fiction book Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History, by Xiaoming Wang and Richard Tedford.
The review quotes from a section of the book where the evolution of canids is placed in historical context.
It says that at the time, the difference between the tropics and the poles was about half of what it is today. It still doesn’t give details of what the tropics were actually like, but it appears possibly a bit less extreme than present differences might lead one to expect.
I’ll give the lengthy quote below, but it links up with a second piece of knowledge I’d picked up earlier.
That is something about plate tectonics and its influence on the world’s climate, that I remember reading and seeing illustrated several years ago. That article explained how the migration of Antartica into its present position on the south pole, separated from the other continents (I forget if it was attached to South America or to Africa before that, or maybe Australia) created the circumpolar southern ocean current. That in turn diminished the heat exchange through ocean (and air?) currents between the tropics and the south pole region, allowing the ice sheets on Antarctica to grow faster. Once those started growing, it became a self-reinforcing cooling and drying mechanism. More ice reflects more sunlight, increasing the cooling; increased cooling means less evaporation, and more water locked up in thick ice sheets means less water circulating in the air.
Precipitously reversing those trends, as we are doing, will lead to a very different earth than we have been used to during the entire timespan of human civilisation. Not necessarily geologically worse, but requiring enormous shifts and adaptations, like moving all cities away from coasts and low-lying areas, shifting populations from places that are becoming ininhabitable, deserts or flooding. With the way the world is all divided into territories claimed by different nations and groups, and tge heavy investments into present locations, the necessary free and fast relocation will be difficult to envision or support.
And with the natural environment so scattered into small and unconnected pieces, making it hard for animal and plant species to migrate along with the climate, it looks as if another mass extinction event will be nearly inevitable.
So here’s the quote from the book mentioned above:
From the already warm and humid conditions in the Paleocene, the beginning of the Eocene was marked by a rapid warming to a peak temperature more than 14C higher than today’s average global temperature. This extreme warming event is called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or more colloquially, the Eocene Hothouse. With these warm conditions, the Eocene global climate was perhaps the most homogenous within the Cenozoic as a whole. The temperature gradient – the differences between temperatures along the equator and temperatures at the poles – was only about half as much as it is today, resulting in a very equable climate with low seasonality. The climate was so warm that even the polar regions could support a diverse and productive biota, including the miacids [early carnivore clade].
The warm and humid conditions during the Eocene – coupled with a high level of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane – were ideally suited to the growth of dense forests in much of the world. During the Eocene Hothouse, tropical forest conditions expanded to the latitude of northern Wyoming … lush forest canopies dominated much of North America … through a series of small, foxlike miacids, the proto-canids gradually emerged in the late Eocene … From the peak of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum more than 50 MYA, the first major step toward a long trend of climactic deterioration during the Cenozoic occurred near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, apparently associated with the initial appearance of ice sheets on the Antarctic continent. … …
… In midlatitude North America, the climactic deterioration initiated a process of progressively drier conditions and more seasonal environments. Plant communities at midlatitudes responded to this trend of decreasing rainfall by changing from high-productivity moist forests in the late Eocene to low-biomass dry woodlands at the beginning of the Oligocene, progressing to wooded grasslands and ultimately to large open grasslands in the middle Oligocene.
I also remember reading that the interior of Gondwanaland, when all the continents were smooshed into one supercontinent, was probably ininhabitable to life, because of drought and heatwaves that would be higher than life can endure: brain proteins get cooked. Such heatwaves are already getting very close for several regions on earth at the moment.
Not all possible configurations of earth’s climate are ones we can live with.
I vaguely remember a SF book by Brian Aldiss, Hothouse, where the climate of Earth (post-apocalyptic) was that of steamy rainforest. Currently Canada and Russia have the biggest tracts of land that are likely to be hominid-friendly once global climate change really kicks in. I wonder how they will feel about huge herds of people wanting to immigrate?
If global warming isn’t tackled like the emergency it is.
Greenland might become a lot more habitable too, perhaps, if a lot more of the gletschers melt, but I understand it is very mountainous and though the gletschers will have scoured a lot of rock to fine sediments, I don’t know how fertile bare rock powder without, as yet, any organic nutrients would be.
Europe, especially coastal Europe, is likely to lose the extra warmth that the “Atlantic conveyor belt” ocean current brings north, as this is likely to stop (or pause for 10.000 years) when a lot more fresh meltwater is added to the northern Atlantic and north polar seas – that has happened before, after the last ice age, with lots of repercussions on sea life as well as local colder winters and such. So that might cancel out the rising average temperature there once that happens, but it won’t undo the more extreme weather events fed by the global rising temperature, and the increased energy that lends to all the weather systems.
The Mediterranean countries are looking at more desertification, but the northern European countries will likely remain habitable (insofar as they don’t get drowned by the rising sea), though some reliable large meltwater rivers will become much more variable as purely rainfed rivers, once the Alpine gletschers are gone.
The Arabian peninsula, and the Australian hinterland, are the first to be looking at areas that will become incompatible with any outdoor life (animal or human, but also most insects and plants) during heatwaves, which will occur more often as global warming proceeds. IiRC, similar areas are expected in the north of South America and in Central America and in some areas in Africa and south Asia. The monsoon rains are expected to shift, making the Sahara move, turning areas that are now livable and inhabited into desert, while hopefully greening the Sahara again, and causing huge problems in India and Southeast Asia.
I am afraid the world will not be able to handle the necessary mass migrations needed to cope with those kinds of changes. It would be much better to stop things from getting so far out of hand.
@ Hanneke, Thanks, that’s very interesting. I suppose then that the Hadley Cell, q.v., convection was changed. I’ll have to go check some of that out, I’m missing data!
Re: Pangea, what I’ve always heard was most of the continent was so far from the ocean that no water vapor made it that far in, and the interior was all desert.
@Paul, once tropical rainforest gets a good hold, the evaporation from that can help bring more moisture deeper inland. I read something about how this accounted for a quarter to a third of the rainfall in the Amazon basin – the forest itself generates the rain that the rainforest depends on.
Removing part of the forest to replace with grazing or crops will cause drying out of the remaining downwind, more inland forest.
At the moment I can only find the link to the scientific paper’s abstract, not the illustrated popular science article I read, sorry.
@Hanneke – Agreed with Amazonia has been recycling water. But there is concern that’s becoming past-tense. And as far as global warming now, Pangea desertification and Cretaceous temperature gradients are interesting but also undoubtedly irrelevant with the geography we have now.
We are most likely to have areas that are entirely uninhabitable, not only by humans, but plant biomes won’t be able to migrate fast enough in the remaining areas. We’ll certainly lose the majority of our large commercial cities grown up around shipping with sealevel rise.
It reminds me so much of the response of roughly 1/3 of Americans to Covid, the incapacity to grasp that they can’t have a choice, they’re not gods.
True. Still I find it interesting to read about, and some results from such historical climate research do offer insights that one might not have expected. For instance, the timescale for the cooling of Europe when the North-American inland sea broke through to the Atlantic, halting that thermohaline circulation that we call the North Atlantic conveyor belt, happened extremely fast in geological time: within ten years, the vegetation in Ireland had changed substantially, losing those species that couldn’t cope well with the cold, with more cold-adapted plants becoming suddenly predominant.
Such a fast change in a continent’s climate, in just 10 years, once a certain tipping point is reached, is much faster than many thought likely – but clearly, they can happen and have happened in the past.
I still think lots of politicians can’t believe that things could go bad so fast, but they really can!
You may yet get the opportunity to ice-skate on the polders as we see in the old paintings! 😉
@Hanneke – So the PETM is during the Age of Mammals, post KT boundary extinction. Doesn’t explain the “[Ant]Arctic dinosaurs”. I found something about that here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous#Climate
And on the same page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous#Paleogeography, covers the breakup of Pangea, and the beginning of the continents we know and love.
Sorry, I’m new to this so this is off the current thread and I don’t know exactly where to put it to ask. But I love the Morgaine series and the relationship between Morgaine and Vanya–are there any other CJ’s books that are similar? Are there any plans for another Morgaine book? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
This is as good a place as any, Froggie! Welcome in. The last time I talked to CJ about the Morgaine saga, she said she had no plans to write more in that story. I asked for a short story to wrap up the ending and she just smiled sadly and shook her head.
Darn……
I’d say the “Faded Sun” series of 3 books might be similar in some ways. It’s one of my favorites, and I think there was an omnibus edition.
thank you so much will try them.
@froggie — If it’s the characters and their interrelationships that engage you, take your pick. The Morgaine trilogy was my gateway drug into the Cherryhverse. Have you read any of the Chanur books? Strong characters and character relationships there, too. A strong female protagonist in the Cyteen books also. And then there’s Ilisidi. . . .
Logging in from a long flight under the radar. Radical things happening in my life. In June, friend called saying she couldn’t get my mom to answer the telephone. We went over and found my mom unresponsive on her bed, called 911. She was hospitalized for a week with dehydration-induced kidney failure. The way she was behaving, we thought she’d had a stroke, but it was just delirium as a result of the kidney failure. She had sudden onset severe back pain in May and was diagnosed with degenerative scoliosis — her spine from the bottom of ribs to top of hip looks like the letter “S” — her pain was the result of a slipped disk at L2/L3 pressing on a nerve whenever she tried to sit or stand. No effective treatment except surgery, but she’s 96. From being fully independent in June (walking, driving, shopping unassisted), she’s gone to a skilled nursing facility in July and is essentially wheel-chair bound. She and I are moving into a “senior living” complex — independent living apartments, skilled nursing facility all in one big building. Very nice place. I’ve been selling her house, her car, arranging a combined “living” estate sale for both of us, and getting the paperwork and fund$ together to buy into this senior living complex. My life has been a complete zoo for the past three months having to zoom from one side of town where I live to the other side where mom’s rehab facility is, as well as the senior living place. I will be so ready for my life to settle down again. I’ll be moving on the 31st, mom may be moving sooner as she is still in rehab, and wants to finish her rehab at the new place. Having to go from 1100 sq ft to 2/3rds of a 908 sq ft apartment. Third downsizing in 10 years. I keep thinking, I’m not old enough for a senior living place, but then I remember how old I am. Anyway, sorry about the long radio silence, but I haven’t had time to say “Boo!” lately.
Boo to you too! Life is also getting in my way.
I hope your life settles down soon, and good wishes to your mother.
Oh, WOL— how very shocked and discombobulated your life must feel. I hope your mother comes out of rehab we’ll and as mobile as possible… and that both of you find pleasure and comfort in your new homes.
What Spence said — best wishes to both of you in your new place(s).
Hi WOL, good to hear from you. Wow, that’s a lot of change to process. Your absence was noted, and you were missed 🙂 Try to get a bit of rest and work your way along this journey as best you can. Take care and know you have friends thinking of you.