We had about 5″ on the ground. We got about 7 last night. And in the construction mess, the power cords have all gone missing. I was able to nurse the snow-blower within 8 feet of the street down the driveway, but that’s now a foot of snow PLUS the snow-plow’s gifts that’s barring our way to the street. And it may rain this afternoon, creating ice. So — I have spotted a power cord plugged into the porch light out front, and I am going to make a sincere try at hauling it in off the lawn. WHich is under a foot of snow. Either that or we will have to call taxis all week, for multiple PT appointments and a dental visit.
Today we quest for the power cord….for the snowblower.
by CJ | Feb 12, 2019 | Journal | 56 comments
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We are getting dumped on and thankfully the schools here are closed so I did not meet any buses on the way down my steep grades on the way to work – it’s still snowing like mad and I have to get back up the hills to get home then come back down for a meeting tonight after they say it may rain and get icy – hummm… Anyway – please stay safe on the slick and snowy roads, I wish I could stay in by the warm fire today but – NO! Take care all – and snow in Maui?!
Yep, snow. We get it every 2-3 years.
http://mauinow.com/2019/02/11/additional-snow-accumulation-at-haleakala/
Well, I got the long power cord from under the snow in the front yard, and it is warming on the kitchen floor. And I have now gotten a path to the garage, where there is a reachable plug-in for the long cord when I get it flexible. I have not yet looked to see the horror that will be the snow berm from the plowing last night, but I am determined, if I have to take a shovel to it.
Why? Ice is likely starting this evening, and rain is a possibiity, which will turn our light powder snow to leaden loads of nastiness.
No snow here, rainyside, just ~1.5″ of rain Monday through mid-morning Tuesday, machine-gunning the picture windows on the wind Monday evening.
Locals were actually PO’d when most of the snow the forecasts said was possible over the weekend failed to materialize! Events were cancelled, reservations dropped.
Just don’t run over the cord! I did that once with an electric lawn mower and it cost me to replace the cord. Plus it injured my pride just a bit.
FREEEEEDOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got through the new 7 inches of snow on most of the driveway and through the 15 inches of it on the 8 feet I couldn’t reach without that cord, and then powered the Little Engine That Could through a 2 foot ice berm, with patience and brute force. We can now back out and reach the street. Jane has got the front walk clear. I am tired. She is tired. We are tired. We are going to have lunch.
And kudos to the PT guy. I’ve been up and down stairs, hauled 50 feet of cord, shoveled, run the beastie-thingie, and I am not limping. In fact, I feel good because of the exercise. I am sooooooooooooooo glad Jane and Joan found this guy. Muscle release therapy. Onliest problem I’ve got is now the other leg is complaining after the bad one has hit a more normal stride. We’re setting up the exercise gear in the basement and none too soon.
It’s currently snowing in the Boston (Massachusetts) area but will switch to rain (bleagh!) in a couple hours, around 10:00pm. This has been a disappointingly unsnowy winter so far (if you don’t count November, which was a big surprise). I need to go outside and see if it is worth shoveling or if the warmer weather coming in this evening will wash all (a couple inches only) the pretty, white stuff away.
Glad that the PT is being so productive, CJ! Your snow exertions are much more heroic than mine at the moment.
With CJ’s cry of “Freedom!” I am somehow picturing a warrior princess, kilted tartans, signature brass breastplate (apparently, all warrior princesses must wear these) a rakish hat, and assorted fighting implements. (Quarterstaff? Katana? Longbow? Bola? Something.) — Jane must surely be similarly attired. Not sure who’s more colorful in this. Do they have cloaks, capes, hoods? Oh, probably….
Yeah, OK, so my imagination is a bit hyper tonight, haha.
Side Note: I never really got in the Xena series, but now I think I might need to remedy that, just because. I wonder if Netflix has it. Will have to look.
Side-Side Note: Expected 42 low tonight and more intermittent showers. Mix of rain and sun yesterday and today. Ah, but then I see the Friday forecast. Expected 79 high, 62 low. Are you kidding me? 79°F in February? It hasn’t even hit Easter yet! (Or Passover, for our friends who celebrate it.) Temps and sun/rain still are up and down like a yo-yo, but slower, smaller oscillations now. It is gearing up for spring and summer. (Really, we only have a cold season and a hot season, with brief transition periods of about a month.)
Grocery delivery is supposed to happen tomorrow. I wonder what I forgot to put in the order? LOL, I am sure there will be something. — Still waited a month, this time. Thinking maybe I can avoid the sticker shock by doing it twice a month again.
I replaced the kitchen above-sink light stick and one of the little spotlights. That’s since October or December. Not getting such great mileage out of these, and Lord, I honestly think the lighting in castle and dungeon sets and current space shows might be brighter. — I swept and mopped the bathroom twice in the month. I’d feel much prouder if the cats didn’t come right along and stink up the litter box and cast a little litter on the floor a few hours later. Hah. But, progress. It’s still in good shape here.
I have been watching the Project Blue Book series from the History channel. I feel so-so about this. It’s a dramatization, so it’s entirely fictional without them saying so. I’m giving it a B. It is pretty good, just not quite scratching whatever itch that is, and much of it is stuff we’ve seen before, though in well-done scripts, acting, scenes and pacing. It does a fair job of conveying the claustrophobic paranoia of the 50’s and 60’s, and an interesting job comparing the US and Soviet fears and military competition, and post-WW2 residue. Although on that point, it might could do a bit better at conveying a point I find interesting, looking at it from 2019: The best tech of our two biggest powers back then had barely mastered putting anything in orbit, and had not yet put a man in orbit or on the moon. Here we are in the show, both the US and Russia (and German scientists post-war) and so on, are all thinking they can outwit or maybe reverse-engineer anything that “space aliens” might be able to send across interstellar distances to little old Earth. And it does not once cross any of the humans’ minds that perhaps cooperating, banding together, would be more productive than spying on one another and competing to see who can conquer space à la supremacy from orbit like in Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Only much, much later would it occur to anyone that having standard airlocks, for instance, would be a good idea, just in case either the Americans or the Russians had an emergency and might need help from astronauts or cosmonauts on the other side. And the thinking that somehow, our human petty squabbles over ideologies and territories would mean anything whatsoever to aliens. That, and the presumption that aliens were up to no good.
That is not a criticism of the show, but of the thinking going on then, and the tropes in the alien conspiracy theory sub-genre.
I found myself wondering why aliens would bother with things like subliminal radio signals embedded in songs playing, or spooky, sneaking around, or what-not. — Would they camouflage so they can observe the primitives on the planet at all? Or would they just show up and do whatever they intend to do? Would they be so alien that their reasons and thinking and ways of life would match human styles at all? Or would they be somehow different? Likewise for the alien abduction and probing thing. If aliens were doing that, to examine humans scientifically or zoologically / anatomically / behavioral, then, (1) They could examine behavior from orbit via scanning devices, or on the ground via landing parties in camouflage; and (2) gee, if they think we’re so primitive they’d study us by picking up samples for lab tests or zoos or tag-and-track, er, would they bother at all with doing it in remote instances? Wouldn’t it be just as easy to scoop up entire small towns or sweep through cities? If, on the other hand, they do recognize we’re an emerging, still primitive intelligence, pre-starflight, wouldn’t they either have laws against experimentation and kidnapping, or else, wouldn’t they do it in some other way? (And, come on, that trope about probing the, uh, hind end? Why? Real aliens wouldn’t need to do that. They could do a full 3D scan without even touching someone; probably without getting too close, either. And if they did want a biological exam on a living subject, er, it would not be only back there.) Just my take on it.
(Although, in a fit of dark humor, I once wondered if that’s the alien teen version of a joyride, taking the family UFO out for a spin without parental permission, or a hot date, or sexually frustrated teen aliens, uh, getting a little too friendly in inappropriate and risky, dodgy ways with the local semi-intelligent lifeforms, just for weird kicks.) (Yeah, my imagination was going a little too hyper that time too. But hey, it kinda-sorta fits the usual tropes, right? IMHO, it just goes to show how out-there some of the tropes are.)
It _does_ say _something_ about human beings that we have the tropes to the alien conspiracy and alien abduction sub-genres that we do. For some people, those are compelling stories, and there are some people who really believe those things have happened to them. — And I’d have to admit, I don’t know what has or hasn’t happened to anyone, so although I’m skeptical, it’s also worth noting that any portion of the population believes something has happened to them, while another portion this it is a real possibility. How would I know what real aliens might do?
Please Note: I’m still curious about the possibility of aliens, and just because I’m skeptical doesn’t mean it isn’t possibly true, or an odd or exciting story.
I suspect that if and when we do discover aliens or make contact, or they contact us here, that the reality will be much different than any of the “alien invasion” or other such movies / shows have ever thought of. Wouldn’t it be disconcerting for humanity if aliens simply arrived and regular stopped off and passed by, as if we’re a spot on a back country road on the interstellar highway, beneath notice, not needed as food or resource mining? Hah. — So I don’t know.
Anyway, the show is worth watching, pretty good in its genre, well acted and well carried out. I’d say it’s worth a casual watch and worth another season if they do. Not necessarily a favorite, but still enjoyable, watchable fare.
(Hoping we’ll get news soon whether the Orville has been renewed, and a release date for season 4 of the Expanse and season 2 of Lost in Space. Looking forward eagerly to Stranger Things season 4 on July 4th.)
Notice I’m not eager to rain on anyone’s parade for what they like, and I’m not mentioning everything out there, either other shows I like, or one I don’t like that’s currently out there. (I was/am vastly disappointed by that one.) Also note I’m hoping for good things from shows currently out there, including one I like which IMHO had a lackluster season just passed, which I’m also not mentioning now, partly because I suspect they may improve if/when they have their next season, still to be announced.
I love science fiction, but don’t have much outlet for discussion these days. I don’t have a group of friends locally who are SF&F geeks, and online, at least three fan forums I used to frequent, two have shut down and one is mostly inactive these days. I really enjoyed hanging out and discussing at those places. I need to find others.
Hoping you all are doing great, keeping warm or keeping cool. — My two cats have declared a truce and are sharing the bed again, haha. Things are so-so here, but I’m still picking away at it.
Don’t forget the woad on her face, too!
Now I’m picturing a film noir detective story, Elmer Fudd as Humphrey Bogart: “The new client had a face like a thousand miles of bad woad….”
Yeah, I’m sorry, I’ll be over here with a mug of gfi. Or gfaw….
[eyes oversized driveway and collection of snow shovels]
What is this ‘snowblower’ of which thou speaks??
We have a Toro electric, middle sized one, mid price range. Tough little beggar.
Happy snowplowing – up here in NH the snow met rain and freezing rain and the end result was relatively easy to clear although the snow was heavy. I did a very little shoveling.
But I hunkered down and started reading Ms. Cherryh’s pean to the near bald. She gives Tristian Four Tresses. Maniacal laughter.
But seriously folks, somehow I have lost my e-book copies and had to purchase new ones from Amazon. If you are interested in some of the older series, the e-book prices are not as high as the newer ones. And the reading is just great.
In Tx panhandle, high of 74F today, low of 33F tonight. Tuesday’s predicted high 37F with low of 19F. Nuts to this yo-yo weather. It’s getting so a body doesn’t know how to dress. (Can people get frost heave?)
That kind of temperature swing is, whew, that’s wacky. It was a damp, clammy kind of almost-chilly here, and would’ve been bad if I’d had to be out in it for any long while. But mostly spring-like, too mild for mid-February.
OT PSA: Just in case you haven’t “herd”, deer in 24 states have been identified with “Chronic Wasting Disease”. It’s a PRION disease, like “Mad Cow” or Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease. No amount of marinading or cooking, short of total incineration, will render that venison safe to eat. (Even any knives used to cut infected meat will transmit the infection to any other meat they may be used on. As with the meat itself, no “normal” means of sterilizing, e.g. solutions or baking at 500°F, such knives will do the job! Medical examiners doing an autopsy on suspected CJD cases use chainmail gloves and dedicated instruments.) Unlike the cattle industry, nobody can monitor the herds so it’s a total toss-up for deer hunters. So when it comes to eating venison any longer, “Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya?”
DEER and ELK.
Do you mean just pithing deer and elk populations, or it’s contagious / transmissible among humans also? Ugh in any case. Many people depend on supplementing their diet with hunting game. It’s local, they extend their budget, they may do it as part of traditional living, whether that’s native or pioneer ways or frugality, or a way of living within the environment. Note I’m assuming it’s not for sport, that it’s used for food and in a way that respects the cycle of life. I’d have no use for anyone who’d hunt just for sport and thus waste.Plenty rural and native folks hunt and feed their family and friends, and so on. I also respect folks who say we should not do that to animals. I understand their argument and have some sympathy for it.
Hmm. The basic problem isn’t even risk to humans, but how much that could damage deer and elk populations, genetic diversity, ecological balance among species, gah, the ripple of side-effects only expands before the system can absorb the effects. And yet it’s a natural hazard that the system must adjust to.
@BCS, You don’t remember when “Mad Cow Disease” struck in the mid-1980’s? No matter, I can explain. (Of course. 😉 )
Proteins are linear molecules that derive most of their function from the particular way they are “folded” as they are made “in the normal way”. Prions are the same molecules but somehow not entirely clear yet get folded in a different, pathological, and contagious way. Contagious in that prions in the body cause the normally folded same molecules to become refolded to the pathological form, and thus the cascade. When those proteins are used in the brain, terminal vCJD results.
Humans share many proteins with animals, that’s why they can be “food”, generally in proportion to our evolutionary relationship–but you’re in Texas so we won’t speak of that. So, yes, animal prions will cause prion cascades in those proteins shared with humans.
At this point, I don’t think you need have ecological worries. Estimates are that there are more deer in the US now than when the Pilgims landed. Bambi’s cute, so in combination with typically using high-powered weapons for culling the herd, we’ve over-protected deer. They’re pestiferous on the East Coast. They’re too many of them, in shrinking habitats, making the transmission all the more deadly. When the over-population dies out, then perhaps the infection will slow. Alternatively, we could go wide-open for bow-hunting; guess who was right all along? But it’d just be for sport, they’d still be inedible. How’d you like that?
“Do you mean just pithing deer and elk populations, or it’s contagious / transmissible among humans also?”
I meant that it’s not just deer, but elk, too. Fuddruckers, a burger place, sells elk-burgers.
As for transmissiblity, it’s transmitted by eating, so cannibals are at risk from human meat, I presume. (I’m reminded of a meetup group near me which reproves, “NO MEAT” [sic]. So, vegans or Cannibals Anonymous? I’m meat: I don’t go.)
Prions are something like enzymes, converting some flesh ingredient into more prions. My understanding is that they are just “malignantly” folded proteins, so they’re not even as complicated as viruses. As such, anti-virals much less antibiotics are ineffective.
Some biologists have suggested that prions are exposed by melting permafrost. (“‘Perma’frost”?)
Indeed, cannibals do get prion diseases. It’s called “kuru” in New Guinea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)
Aha, thanks, everyone for the explanations. (1) I hope this gets put at the right indent level. I’m not entirely sure at what level (branch) of the tree (outline) the replies are on. (2) I had “pithing” in my comment, but I can’t tell what that was supposed to have been, whether the cat or my rushed typing and bad eyesight introduced an error or typo, or what was going on there. It doesn’t seem related to anything, and looking back, I can’t guess what that was supposed to be, such as a phrase that got chopped into a non-word.
Heh, Texas, evolution, haha. Yeah, I do not understand the anti-science / pro-religious / pro-magical-thinking trend. When I went to school, there was an “uncomfortableness” sometimes in which teachers didn’t quite want to directly say, look, that’s religious dogma, but not provable or proven science. They might mention, for instance, that some people believed in Creationism versus Evolutionary Theory. — Me personally, although I did grow up Christian, my parents were both of the mindset that religious faith was in one place and science was in another place, and the two could happily coexist; that science was a tool to understand the world and facts, rather than superstitions and fantasy, and religious faith had to do with other types of questions. In particular, evolution was a scientific theory that was the best and most demonstrable explanation we had for what exists and existed in the natural world. Heh, I grew up with a sort of world-view where God could create the universe,e the world, and life, and then might direct evolution, I guess; but anyway, with the idea that a broad belief in creation by deity did not preclude that evolution took place. (I think some portion of the American population also has that view.)
But anyway, I’m in favor of science, unlike the current anti-science people, who I think are sliding down that slippery slope toward theocracy or religion rather than science.
Mad Cow Disease; also some of the avian transmissible outbreaks: Yeah, I recalled those, and recalled you were required to cook meat to certain temperatures for a required length of time for food safety; and that there were culls of livestock to stop / prevent the spread of disease through a population. — But I didn’t know enough about how and whether a given virus, etc., could “jump species” like that. (I knew it was possible from other things, like the conjectured jump of HIV from ape sources to humans). So I asked, since that seemed the best chance for a succinct explanation. And hooray, it worked! Thanks, all.
I’ve known various friends who hunt and therefore make venison sausage, store meat and poultry and fish for use, and view this as wildlife management (they get hunting/fishin licenses from the wildlife management service here, which sets rules on levels of hunting to manage populations). And that’s fairly common in America, so things like this (deer and elk prone to transmissible diseases making game unsafe for consumption and killing herds) wow, yikes. — I typically prefer my food well done anyway, and if I get something medium-rare, it’s generally by mistake. (Though I’ve eaten that.) — But the idea that some things are stopped even by good hygiene and food prep / kitchen skills, ouch. — Obviously, I’m omnivorous. I understand the vegan objections, but I grew up eating meat and veggies and nature works that way, so…well, my personal moral compass says the world works this way; yet I respect other people’s food rules and would not want someone to have to eat something they objected to on moral or religious grounds; and certainly wouldn’t want anyone having an allergic reaction. Or illness. Food’s supposed to be good for you and enjoyable and sociable.
Prions — oh, so _that;s_ how that works. Hmm. So either it’s a disease process, or it’s some weird malfunction (or unusable product) (or process with an unknown function) that causes proteins to take an “unusable” shape rather than a useful, needed shape the body uses, in food or in internal bodily functions / processes (like energy transfer or nerve impulse transmission or what have you). OK, and so there can be two or more “folded” forms that a given molecule can take, one (some) of which the body can use, and others which are somehow not usable, and an incomplete understanding of how and why the unusable forms happen versus the usable forms from the normal functions versus disrupted functions, triggered by some corruption of the body’s processes from external forces (disease or chemicals or other forces) or some disruption of the body’s own function (co-opting the cells’ DNA to make mistakes, for instance, either internal mistakes from the body’s own actions, or introduced by invading organisms or contaminants (chemicals, allergens, etc.). OK, good information.
Note Also: my browser and OS just insist on very aggressively intrusive auto-INcorrect respellings. This occasionally slips by me and hilarity or incomprehensibility (often both) ensue. heh. — I still have not figured out how to reliably turn this off for the browser or specific apps/programs or for the OS as a whole, and have that stay set that way. (Previous attempts get reset at some point.) Between typing too fast and not always catching my own typos anymore due to hurry or eyesight issues, and the OS interfering with auto-incorrect 😉 and cats attempting to “help” type (or doing keyboard strolling), hah, I guess I’m lucky I don’t have more typos or weird oddities in there.
Oh, that is not good at all, at all! I know my brother in Wyoming eats venison that hunter friends give him and I love venison (never had elk) the few, rare times I get access to it.
@BCS: Prion diseases certainly do cross species when consumed and result in a nasty death as the brain goes.
Blessed be the snow blower, and those that clear neighborhood sidewalks!
I watched the latest ep of The Orville, and man, am I impressed. They managed to tackle a difficult what-if with relevance to real-world issues. Again. And in so doing, they’ve also made one of the main species on the show more morally complex or tangled. I gulped. This got to me personally too. I am not sure what I think yet on the issues, not quite. But wow, keep being that good and please renew for season 3. This isn’t just humor. It tackles some thoughtful questions too, actual storylines and character development. Who knew such things could be on TV anymore? (OK, Expanse and Stranger Things and some other fans probably knew, but goodness, it’s rare lately. The critics may not understand or like it, but I would say that just shows they’re paying more attention to popularity or checkbook than to the merits of the show for story or entertainment value. Anyway, I liked it. This will need a rewatch to get everything.
OT: I’ve just spent four days reading Willa Cather. I need a brain scrub. I find that I dislike her protagonists intensely.
I agree, almost as much as I hate George Elliot. Our class held celebrations at the demise of each major character, and our teacher went along with it…
Certain authors I just don’t read because I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like anything else they wrote. Cather and Elliot are on the list. Henry James as well.
Now, now, you can’t knock George Elliot, who nobody in their right mind now reads for fun, but undergraduate English majors have to read SOMETHING. I once wrote a 15 page paper on water-imagery in Elliot’s Mill on the Floss and it has proved to be very useful in later life. [The ability to burble on about anything ad infinitum] The significance of Elliot now is how innovative, albeit depressing her work is in the context of 19th C English lit as a whole. [I would include Thomas Hardy in this category too]
I don’t recall reading Cather, although when I was very young I read all kinds of things of that time period so it’s quite possible I did.
Now Henry James!! You don’t read for fun either. I encountered him in an American lit course which also included Twain and a few others which are interesting to modern eyes. For me James was significant because he represents a development in US literature that also happened somewhat later in Canadian literature. Can Lit long suffered from an inferiority complex, where Canadian authors struggled to find a ‘national identity’. When I found James, with his long residence abroad, his Europhilia and his mannered contortions into British stylistic nonsense, I said, “Yes! They went through this sort of crap too!”
Now don’t ask me to back this up with a closely-reasoned essay, because I could. [See aside re. water-imagery]
After all the Masterpiece Theater Anthony Trollope dramatizations I went back and read all the original books. Hopeless dweeb, what can I say?
Comment I love Trollope. Have read them all at least once and have never purged them in all our moves. All about love and money, in all of their many configurations. And have you encountered Angela Thirkell, who picked up in Barsetshire in the 1930s and carried her folks down to the 1960s, reusing Trollopian names and locations quite often? different from Trollope, much lighter, but so much fun.
And then there’s Georgette Heyer. She causes me to laugh aloud. Highly recommended.
I love Georgette Heyer (if you’re unfamiliar, an early/mid 20th c. “Regency Romance” writer… and also mysteries, but those are not so good in my opinion)! Yes, she can be very funny and has a superb ability to make you really believe “you are there” in the English Regency or other historical period.
I don’t like her medieval and Tudor stuff so much – I think she was writing too “forsoothly”, as one of Josephine Tey’s characters put it. The 18th century and Regency stuff is her best. (Not all of those work for me, either.)
My mother found the Thirkells at the local library, when I was in high school, so I read those – they’re really fairly fun.
It is somehow very reassuring to know that other readers, including a favorite author and liberal arts majors, also don’t always like some of what are supposedly “classics of literature.” While I read many books I thought were great stories, or interesting / thought-provoking, or useful for some understanding of literature, history, opinions of their times; I also read some books that didn’t do anything for me, or made me wonder what was up with the author, or the critics who considered some book to be “classic” or “great literature.” — Although that’s sometimes a matter of personal taste on a given reader’s part.
I remember back in high school I got very fed up with one of Ernest Hemingway’s books because of his penchant for run-on sentences strung together with “and” and too little punctuation or sentence breaks. Heheh. At one point, I had trouble reading the book because my nose was so out of joint in noticing the tendency and wanting to edit the text. (LOL.) — However, I did also see why his writing could be good literature. Subsequent reads of his work still make me want to edit it, but at least the urge is now more of an, “Oh, OK, whatever, do your thing, Ernest,” approach.
One of my English profs had one book on his required reading list that was some recent fad for literary greatness. It was a short novel or novella from the early 20th century, a book titled, “McTeague.” I could not figure out why this had any real literary merit. My mom was an English major, and when I fussed about this as a freshman or sophomore, she decided she’d read it and see what she thought. Hah, she was possibly more mystified than I was, and she got turned off by one scene in the book. We decided it was more pulp writing than great lit. (Your mileage may vary.) — Two things of note: I think the book was involved in that prof’s recent doctoral thesis. 😉 And that prof was the one to whom I had mistakenly said I wanted to be an author. Thereafter, nothing I wrote in that class got anything higher than a C or maybe a B. Looking back, oh, my essays were probably sophomoric and not of great literary merit, I agree; but I’m still not convinced they should have been treated so harshly. On the positive side, two of my following English profs were great, and enjoyable, and my French prof, an exceedingly eccentric Frenchwoman, was very good despite those eccentricities, both in personality and in academic methods. (And in her defense, of all the profs I had, she was the only one who, several times, declared that it was such a pretty day outside that we should all go outside and conduct class. That was wonderful. Bless the woman, eccentricities and all. She may or may not still be living; she was probably in her mid 60’s when I was in college.)
My first run through college was such a bizarre mix of success and mistakes and flailing around. I took that bit about “the unexamined life” way too much to heart, and went way too self-analytical and strict towards myself. This coincided with an overly-religious phase, and compensating because, well, I was not dealing with being gay and not coming out. Oh, if I’d only gotten mad enough or daring enough or met the right person and come out and be done with it. But I didn’t, and struggled hugely because of it. — However, my path was unusual anyway. It’s a pity “web design,” merging technical know-how and artistic design sense, didn’t exist yet. It would’ve been a good major for me. — And I suspect, in hindsight, that I should’ve listened to my French prof, who tried hard to convince me to switch to a language major. (French was one of the few subjects in which, even at my worst phase in college, I made A’s and only ever one B.) But I thought I knew better, goofy undergrad college boy that I was, and went right on, with my head spinning about the gay thing, and trying hard to go into computer science when I was partway through an English major. I, er, had this idea that I would become a tech writer and translator by day, and the great American science fiction novelist by night (or personal project, at least). Heh. Oh boy, did real life interfere with that, repeatedly. — So instead, I became a “desktop publisher;” that was the word for it in the 80’s and 90’s. I came home from the first round in college, not out and closeted and conflicted (very), and worked, then finally got back to college (community college) and got an associate’s degree that really doesn’t have much value, except that I did make honor society and it would give me a foothold towards completing a bachelor’s degree. — And then, a year later, my mom passed away, and two years later, my dad passed away, and soon after, I was taking care of my grandmother, until she passed away, and my savings and health were pretty depleted.
The funny thing about it is, I did end up using my English major skills in desktop publishing, and my trajectory through life was just…somehow off-course but still kinda-sorta aimed at where I’d wanted to be. — The other irony is, even if everything had gone as I’d envisioned as an undergrad, my parents’ and grandmother’s health would’ve meant I wold’ve had to return to help out, and I likely would have ended up somewhere around where I did in this timeline. (If my parents were alive today, they’d be in their mid and late 80’s and I’d have to take care of them, now in my 50’s.) So I would have likely ended up at near this point anyway. That was a weird realization a few years ago.
For whatever reasons, I’m still not putting out fiction prose in the quality I think is needed, and I’m still not completing story ideas / drafts for some reason I can’t fathom. I can pump out multiple pages of rough draft in a day, especially if I’m going good. But lately, it has tended to veer into what amounts to my brain trying to work out personal issues, I think, and hasn’t been as productive as it needs to be. (A lot of that ends up in a drafts or junk drawer folder on my computer. Some of it gets deleted after it sits.)
That, and I have discovered I am not creating what I feel are good enough, original enough story plots. I think my characterization is uneven. I have trouble writing villains. — And one try at a dystopian thing projected from where I thought we were going at the time ended up completely overshadowed by…gee, what I wrote wasn’t as bad or dire as what was actually starting to happen. Which meant either I wasn’t being daring enough, or it meant we are in a truly strange dystopian time as it is.
So…well, so I am not yet that published author. I still want to complete short stories and novels. I do still have ideas brewing, and I get plenty of ideas at times, more than I know what to do with. — CJ and other writers I admire make it look so easy, and it’s not quite that easy to write a well-written story, either long-form or short-form. — It’s still a goal of mine to write stories and self-publish or submit professionally for publication.
Meanwhile, I’m still working on fonts, and still haven’t gotten my production process into finished font-families ready to submit for publication. But I’m working toward it and making pretty good progress, better than my writing.
I still have stuff in that blankety-blank storage space to go through. I’m making a dent in the batch that’s here at my apartment, but it’s slow. (I want to get potentially paying work done as a priority, yet the old stuff needs to be done too.)
And… my local friends did not show up (again) for a small errand, so I’m going to have to call again and nag them into doing it, please. — I’ve now lived here two years, and only know two neighbors’ names, and they are only passing acquaintances. For a while there, I’ve retreated from trying much to get to know people, as trying before was generating essentially zero results. People are busy going to and fro, and a little leery of who I guess is a slightly odd-seeming white guy. — I no longer know objectively how I come across to people. I think I’m fine about it, but I would’ve thought I’d know more people and would’ve made a few friends here by now. It hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t know why. It’s weirded me out some and has me down, misanthropic, lately.
So…yup, life is weird, my personal life is just limping along right now, but I’m still hanging in there. Less than two weeks until I’m 53, and I’m still not used to being in my 50’s! I am not ready to be this age, LOL. I still have plenty I want to do, and yet life is being difficult, and my own weak spots are not helping enough. — You’ll note there’s still no roommate or boyfriend or partner in my life. I still have my two wacky cats, and I’m grateful for them, even when at times their quirky and mine clash. (We’ve been doing better about that. They and I have simmered down some. They’re now 12+ and 9+, senior kitties.)
So…well…that’s me right now. Just one day at a time, keeping my head down, hoping for better.
I suspect that as tastes change in litracha, books that were considered classics fall out of favor. In high school, our English teacher had us read a book by Saul Bellow, Seize the Day, and I wanted nothing better than to douse it in lighter fluid and set it ablaze. It was probably my first taste of an antihero, but all I really wanted to do was shake the protagonist until his teeth fell out for being such a mope. Thomas Covenant as well.
I wonder how future generations will look back on popular books of today? Is Danielle Steel truly a writer of deathless prose? How about J.K. Rowling? Tom Clancy? Are there markers for greatness? I may be able to spot tripe easily enough, but the true gems may be harder to distinguish.
I think there is another aspect to your first point. It’s a point CJ makes about characterizations, whether a “strong” character is one with a strong sense of self or one that is strongly “drawn”. Sounds like Bellow did his job, he “penetrated” the page leading you to suspended your disbelief.
I think I agree to some extent with your second, that in the real world people don’t communicate the way English is taught–think Huck Finn. That is not so say I think there should be no rules, but that the rules are the servants of communication, not the lords. I am reminded of Heinlein’s expression of the literary value of an Annapolis course in writing military orders with clarity, so they could not be misunderstood.
Some English teachers should be drummed out of the corps! As a freshman in college we had to read ‘WutheringHeights’, then write about it. I proposed to write about the methods Heathcliff used to get revenge. The old biddy wouldn’t accept there was anything there–all she could see was romance–but fortunately I found support at the school to enable me to drop the class without prejudice, even after the “permissible” date. Got a decent one second time around.
BCS, around here we have a bus, sponsored by the county, that serves seniors and folks who need extra assistance. It takes them shopping, to the library, for doctor’s appointments and other things where a taxi might get prohibitive quickly. Maybe see if your community has such a thing?
I like Elliot, although she’s somewhat quirky. Apparently being blonde and beautiful is a crime punishable by death, and she obviously has recurring nightmares about death by water.
‘Reader, I married him’ by Patricia Beer is a very entertaining comparison of the heroines and heroes of Elliot, Gaskill, Bronte and Austen. Beer also takes issues with some of Elliot’s choices.
Henry James I can read, but I find him a bit sterile and unbending. Sort of like a less capable Hardy.
So, we had snow Sunday night here in Vegas. That doesn’t happen often (once a decade?) I am beginning to believe the rest of you when you say it’s been a cold year!
Here in the valley, we got snow Tuesday night, with a smidge of sleety stuff on Wednesday. Not too bad. Our neighbor shoveled the sidewalk (we did theirs last time), so instead of working we got to have a nice chat about their 6 month old baby, who is, of course, as cute as she can be. Today it will be 55 degrees, solar melting will ensue. Then more rain for the weekend. We have been so very wet since last winter, actually hoping a bit for a dry spell.
Re: Transmissability of Mad Cow Disease aka Creutzfeldt Jacob Disease (CJD) – there is no way to sanitize meats. Anyone who lived or visited in Europe (including England and Germany) during the early 80s is automatically considered to have been exposed and may be a carrier. They are not allowed to donate blood as there is no inexpensive yet accurate test for the prion disease that doesn’t take longer than the shelf-life of the blood. I guess I’ll find out if I have it by either coming down with symptoms or upon autopsy…
Every time I donate, I have to answer that question. They also ask me if I were in the military from 1980 on, stationed in Turkey or Europe. Same answer every time, on a Navy ship for 2 weeks inport 1980, and at sea for the rest of the time. Even so, I know that the commissaries (military grocery stores) in Germany had purchased beef from the UK, and so anyone who was there during that time is automatically assumed to be carriers of CJD. I was in southern Europe, (Italy and Spain), and they didn’t include those countries as possible sources of CJD. So, I can still donate.
I was stationed in Germany. My two eldest daughters were born there. I wonder if I have infected them, though I vastly prefered pork to beef.
I just saw a headline on Google News & New York Post that eating “zombie deer” is “apparently” safe. Tainted meat was eaten by 80 people in 2005, and nobody seems to be sick yet. OMG! Incubation period can be up to several decades, and even then it’s slowly progressing. Oh! It was reported by USA Today. Well, that’s understandable then.
I lived in Scotland in the early ‘80’s, and while beef was rarely on my diet as I was a penniless grad student (and if I was going to spring for beef, why not buy rabbit or venison instead?), I too am a potential Mad Cow, as is my now spouse who visited me one summer so we have never been able to donate blood.
I can recommend Mad Cow as a Halloween costume, though. One Halloween I came into work on the subway in Boston dressed in my brown and white “cow-spotted” bathrobe; a plastic Viking helmet (for the horns) atop my head and rubber “cow nose” held by elastic on mine. I think I had done up my leather shoes as cow hooves too. It was great fun. I remember walking in (late) to a pretty serious meeting in that get-up, pausing at the door to give a mad “moo-ha-ha-ha!”, then announcing “Mad Cow” and taking my seat. One of my better costumes, if I may say so myself.
If you sometimes read some of the old novels in Project Gutenberg you will find some are rather good and some are rather bad. If you look up the authors you will find that many of them were extremely popular in their day – earning top dollar. However, both the books and the authors are long forgotten.
Yet we worship certain authors whose books are just depressing, hard to read, subject to excruciating analysis. BAH.
But wil Ms. Cherryh’s books ever be taught as literature. Will they even be read? While I hope so, as it turns out, if Ms. Cherryh’s books are not read she does not eat – unless she admits to some hidden day job.
So what is it – literature or food. I myself think that it is both. I often say in these pages that Ms. Cherryh writes well – and now helped by Ms. Francher. While I am not a Phd in English I know what I like to read and surely literature is both readable and complex.
Does anyone read depressing 19th century books for fun or to spend some time?
Enough for my rant from up in cold New Hampshire.