Thank you all —all very useful discussion. I think it’s going to stay Convergence at least for now. I need something to think of as ‘the book’. I’m making good progress and that deadline looks almost do-able if I can keep my focus during Worldcon—if you see me staring blankly elsewhere, understand that I am probably on the Earth of the atevi and will be back in a few minutes.
Jane is mobilizing to finish the mudroom door installation, the molding, painting, etc. The problem that developed was that our house, hand-built in the tech of the 1950’s, with handmade trim, etc, no pre-framed doors—has a few hand-adjusted elements. Read: the wall is not square side to side or up and down and has a warp in it. The door is pre-hung, which means its box can’t be adjusted to fit this reality, so we (read: Jane) have to adjust the wall, chiseling it flatter here, building it higher there, until we do have a flat, true wall: we’re not worrying about the ceiling and the floor, except that our door has to have a molding that meets the wall without gaps, and it all has to be painted. Then all the hardware has to be put back, and deadbolt locks can be fussy about meeting their strikeplate. Seems to work smoothly now.
The pond is a mess: that’s my job, and I’ve been writing. I’ll fix it soon.
The lotus Jane rescued from the raccoon and replanted is thriving and sending up three buds. Last year it had only two. We plan to snip the pods off so the nasty raccoon doesn’t yank the plants up in the process of getting the edible pods. We may be kind and just lay them on the bank.
It’s been hot and dry. They promise us rain. It looks possible, but not wholly likely, nor likely to be a lot. But it would be welcome. I’ll tell you what would make it rain: if I get out there and chemically balance the pond and get the water clear. Then we’ll get a deluge of not-balanced water.
But in general, things are good.
How far out of true is your wall? Is it just the door frame that is cattywampus? I could imagine a shim here, a trimming there, but trying to flatten and straighten an entire wall would make me want to rip it out and start fresh.
Years ago, we replaced the flooring in DH’s shop with Costco-bought Pergo flooring; the previous tenants had used Elmer’s to glue down some ugly industrial carpet, and the ankle-deep flood we got when a pipe burst next door did it no favors. We discovered that only one of the walls was plumb to anything. In a burst of extreme felicitousness, that was the wall where we started laying the laminate.
Oh, it’s a narrow wall, just a hallway ending. It’s pretty well finished, work of about 3 days. And a stiff neck.
I’ve coped with pre-60’s houses before—on one occasion in Edmond, OK, when I got up to dust above the door molding—I discovered whoever had framed the front hall door had gone an inch too far—so as the door was installed, the molding had a nice inch-wide gap in the sheetrock that just went back to nothing—nice little gap for spiders and vermin. So I went on a gap search. I dunno if the chap was on metric or feet and inches or if he just couldn’t read, but the door guy solved the too-short door problem just by putting the doors all the way down and leaving the gap above to the fact a person of average height would never see the holes. Nice, eh? I omit the decor—oh, my. Clan McAwful tartan in pumpkin and red and white dominated the bedroom upstairs. That wasn’t the builders’ fault. I couldn’t sleep in that room until I’d taken down those drapes and pulled that massive glued fabric panel off the slanted overhead. There are some things too awful to close your eyes on.
Even tract houses have things like unplumb walls. I helped a friend wallpaper a small bedroom once – a previous resident had put up walnut-look hardboard panels – and we found that no, the walls weren’t all that straight to the world. (It was a blast papering the room, though: we ended up with the oddest improvised tools, like the edge off a pizza box. And it looked much better after we were done.)
Here’s what I think. I think you kinda got to the end of that awhile back. I do not care what you call the next book. I’d find it anywhere. It’s you I resonate to. And “Tracker” was sorta lame. What the he’ll did Been track? Call it what speaks to you. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Man I hate stupid fix it up as you go! Hate ducking Microsoft! Weaned on WordPerfect. And flipping lotus 123.
So I’m in a concrete area. It’s after lunch. I’m gonna smoke 2cigs. Flipping newscasters in my face. “We’re doing a story on women and exercise.” Ok. I’m game. How do you exercise? Thought a bit. “I walk”. A lot. “How much?” Well maybe 30 minutes, I think. She says, and she must have been maybe 25, don’t you think it might be better if you added 15 minutes? And I’m thinking No, I’d really like to cut back. I mean I’d like to curl up with Bren for 15 minutes more. All smiley. Who would have thought the thing would have aired? My son — I here you’re a local celebrity. Good Lord! His flipping wife who doesn’t like me. Sees it. Well naturally. Doomed. And all my friend says is “it was so you!”. We don’t really know who we are, do we?
Don’cha gotta love the young? They have all the answers! 😉
anything over 20 minutes of aerobic exercise begins to give diminishing returns…..not that it isn’t of benefit, but that it’s unnecessary to exercise for 45 minutes when 25 minutes will do just as well, and you won’t be exhausted….(says the man who used to run for 45 minutes during his lunch break……)
May be of interest: The NTSB report into the breakup of SpaceShip Two has been released.
Pilot error, but design error too. The ‘feather’ was unlocked too early.
The feather had to be 1) manually unlocked and then 2) manually extended. The unlocking had to take place with a minimum speed of Mach 1.4, and with a maximum of Mach 1.8 or else the flight had to be aborted. The co-pilot unlocked it at Mach 0.92 and the turbulence of passing through the sound barrier and the lift from the horizontal tails caused it to extend without the extension lever being moved.
The investigation found that Scaled Composites did not ensure that the pilots understood the risks of premature unlocking. The co-pilot had a high workload and was under a lot of time pressure.
Here’s the story of the pilot, Peter Siebold, who survived:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-virgin-pilot-testimony-20150727-story.html
Getting into space and staying there just aren’t easy, but the eventual payoffs are so worth it.
Private companies seem too willing to take a shortcut or rush through things to get it out fast and cheap. Yet even national and international teams have had problems when they’ve missed something too.
And then there’s the problem that we’re still discovering what it takes to build a reusable ground-to-orbit craft, or a true spaceship (interplanetary or later interstellar). We think we know, and we keep discovering new hazards and new ways to work it which need to go into the ship (and station) design, and into taking care of the crew’s needs.
It’s dangerous, yes. But so was building sailing ships to cross entire oceans in roughest seas, even into the 1700’s and 1800’s, when we were technologically more advanced. To make it across the ocean when we were at, say, Columbus’ stage of technology, or Leif Ericcson’s, or the peoples who crossed Asia and India into the Pacific and Australia…that took real guts and real coping, mastery of seamanship and of building seaworthy craft.
Or compare building a workable scuba diving system and subarmarines, because there are similarities in dealing with a hostile environment.
Or compare the early attempts to build flying craft, airplanes and helicopters and dirigibles.
So…back to the drawing board. Build a better spacecraft. Train the pilots better. If it needs more than two people to fly it, put in a third or a fourth. But keep at it. Because we need to take advantage of space for resources and living area and food production. And because having all our eggs in one basket is not so smart either. We’re a species who are curious about everything. So let’s see what’s out there. Why NOT reach and walk among the stars? If we see a mountain or a sea horizon and think, “What’s over the next ridge?” Then why not planet to planet, then star to star?
My grandpa had itchy feet. Always wanted to “go to Texas,” then always wanted to go back to Virginia…and then back again, until he was too old to keep doing that. I am more of a homebody. I like being settled. But — But I also am curious about what’s out there, how other people live and do things and speak. And…life is teaching me, being settled isn’t always as doable as we want. So maybe having itchy feet, the urge to see what it’s ike elsewhere, how those people live, and being among them and making a new life…. There is something worthwhile to that, the urge to explore, to find out, to make something new and adapt what we hae, who we are, to what’s new.
Hmm… Oh, if only I felt so heroic and up to the challenge in day to day life.
Still — I want to see people land on Mars in my lifetime. I was three and a few months when they landed on the moon. I would’ve thought we’d be on Mars by now. But the challenges are bigger and people have let petty things get in the way besides. Be noble. Think big. Explore because we can find out, and make a new way of being.
I grew up with stories of people on starships. I want to know what those people are really like. Not just in a book or a TV show or movie. But in real life.
Mars or Bust.
Hmm, anybody need a Mars Bike? Or a flatcat? 😀 — Or whatever that alien critter was on the Solar Queen, in Andre Norton’s stories….
I think it’s far more dangerous than that. Space is permeated with high-energy particles that will rearrange your DNA. We evolved under an ozone layer for a reason–shielding! Know of any ISS astronauts that had kids after they spent time in space? My ancestors could have kids after they crossed the Atlantic, John Alden & Priscilla Mullins, the Brewsters.
Read this weekend that astronauts’ skin thins.
We always called it ‘the gypsy foot’. Not so PC, but it conveys the just take who and what you need and go of it. On the days when I’m driving and have the urge just to keep on going until I run out of everything, I call it ‘Runners’ Syndrome’.
While it is very thoughtful of you to leave the lotus pods for the racoons, you probably shouldn’t put them out anywhere near the pond. You don’t want to let the little bandits associate the pond with a buffet.
Good thought.
What color(s)?
Do we need tiny painter togs?
Lol—we hope to have things done by then. Well, not totally done. Jane has proposed to redo the kitchen —as in a bigtime kitchen makeover. We have some funds saved for a rainy day, and the kitchen is a problem. And we ask ourselves, if not now, then when? Don’t know we actually will do it this fall, but we hope to. We just need more kitchen storage. Things are always sitting out because there’s just no storage and no counter space. Cooking in our narrow galley is sort of like cooking in a camper if there is ANY sort of project underway anywhere in the house, and there always is.
…for certain ‘helpful’ house elves, I meant…
We are terrified to wake Pooki up during the painting. Wiishu would earnestly try—and he does have a painter-artist’s outfit—but his brushes are awfully small!
I foresee tiny pinstriped detailing…. Or pointillist stippling and halftoning….
Pooki. Yes, probably better to let him sleep. I have this feeling his solution to painting would be some hybrid of fingerpainting and full-body painting…. Oh. My.
However, we applaud Messieurs Wiishu and Pooki’s attempts at home beautification.
3 or 4 years ago, after the pipe came off the kitchen sink drain and dumped a quart of dishwater into the Black Lagoon — the sagging, mildewed particleboard cabinet under the sink, I decreed a kitchen redo. The biggest expense was the new custom base cabinets; I was able to salvage the hanging cabinets with a coat of matching paint. We salvaged and reused the double stainless steel sink with built in dish drainers. Ripped up and replaced the old linoleum tile, because apparently after 30-odd years, only good wishes were keeping it in place. I made mosaic back splashes for the cupboards and sink (you guys would appreciate the undersea fish tiles I found!) and laid ceramic tile on the countertops. Another big thing was adding in space for a dishwasher, which I had never had before but now never want to be without. If you and Jane have decided the kitchen needs a do-over, Godspeed, John Glenn.
CJC sez: The problem that developed was that our house, hand-built in the tech of the 1950’s, with handmade trim, etc, no pre-framed doors—has a few hand-adjusted elements. Read: the wall is not square side to side or up and down and has a warp in it
My girlfriend’s house in Berkeley was built in 1906. It was the worst house on the block-hole in roof-and rehabbed for sale with cheap Home Depot doors and sheetrock. We’ve spent the past 10 years retrimming it.
We found 2 solid oak doors for the upstairs bedrooms and because I can’t work any longer had a pro install them.
Good thing, too.
From the floor the top of the door is 1 3/4″ out of plumb. And the doors have to be plumb because they’re so heavy. Now I have to cut 7 foot wedges to match the jambs to the wall. I’m about halfway through.
Lol! Yep!
I think I’d do it in sections, as much as possible. Because ouch. Probably the angled parts in sections, and a single long piece to cover, with just the minimum of taper on it.
My father salvaged several folding doors from the church we went to when it moved out of its old building to a completely new site, 50 years ago; years after he retired and moved out of state, he used them as cabinet doors in the garage. (They were used to close off the overflow space in the church.) The doors were close to 8 feet tall, pine frames with redwood panels, and had been recycled from a public school. There were at least three layers of paint on them (dark brown, school green, and white) and the pine was still fragrant, a century after being milled. (BTW, redwood needs to be sealed if you’re going to paint it. It bleeds. Even if it is a hundred years old.)
Oooh, we’re supposed to be flirting with 100°F tomorrow, heat advisory until Friday, IIRC. Pro’ly worse in Spokane. Good day to stay inside, do nought?
And lo, there was a great run on air conditioners at Home Depot and Lowe’s. And the inadequate breakers did trip, and the DIYers wept, save that they were prepared, and there was a great lamentation in the land.
Which is why we’ve now got an emergency generator, powered by natural gas.
105°F. All-time record high hereabouts is 107. “Missed it by that much.” (Been closer though, 106 three years ago.)
I spent a wonderful week at Camp Perry, Ohio, just west of Sandusky. Sun, wind, lots of noise (rifles do make a lot of noise). Even with the sunscreen, I still got a little sunburn on the back of my knees, and a lot of windburn on my face. Big floppy hat, long sleeved shirts…..
Yay squishy weather! Welcome to hurricane season; it looks like Guillermo will have been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reaches us, but we will get plenty rain. I can deal with that as long as we don’t get the damaging surf and winds too. Last summer, the back to back storms that hit the Big Island were already degrading, but had enough leftover impact to make life miserable on the windward coast.
I saw some of that last October near Hilo. (Near Hawaiian Paradise Park I suppose.) Before we were taken back to the airport and got on a doors-off chopper to fly over the vent that threatened Pahoa. And I gather still does.
It’s hurricane season here too, and we haven’t had substantial rain in a while, so I’m not making any smart-aleck remarks about rain, just in case.
Except for today, we’re in for another 7+ days of 100°F to 104°F or higher for the highs, lows in the very upper 70’s or low 80’s. Chance of rain still quite low except for today, which is why they’ve forecast only 99 for today’s high.
Ceiling fans and cold drinks are marvelous inventions!
I may attempt to sleep during the day, siesta when possible. — I’m more of a night person anyway. But I’ll have to do errands during the day as needed, darn it.
If it’s not bad form to post it here —
[i]Ancillary Mercy[/i], the third book in the trilogy by Ann Leckie, is due out in October, 2015, and is now available for pre-order for Kindle, in print, etc.
— Does anyone know if there are plans for four or more volumes, or if the trilogy completes the story?
I’ve put it on pre-order.