Journeyman

Almost time to change the decorations here --

Yep, the snow is almost gone -- last week about now some of the beautiful new 14 inches or so was wafting in the wind; now well over 50% of the property is bare, with some of the tree-shade zones still two feet deep and other places brown brown brown brown and muddy.

In other news, in a rush of "just one more chapter to go" enthusiasm, last night we finished our outloud reading of CJ Cherryh's Betrayer. I'm thinking it might be fun to follow up with reading from the start of the series. When we read a book outloud it's a lot like watching TV --we make side comments and predictions along the way...

And yes, we *did* enjoy Betrayer.

Meanwhile, we're going to acquire a very used Mac to help us get our ebooks to the folks who are Appleholics. Since Apple attempts to seal people's economic fate by *requiring a mac in the Apple store uploading process* (talk about an antiquated concept in this day of cloud computing!) we're getting a used machine, and then we'll be getting Pinbeam brand books out to the non-Apple stores first. Sorry folks -- I expect the Apple-store editions will be running at least two weeks to a month behind the other editions to start.

Other personal notes: I spoke to my mother by phone and the doctors have nebulously scheduled a gall-bladder removal .. I dunno, kind of the next time it really gets bothersome, I guess. Other than that, there was another problem looked into, and it seems to finally be resolving itself with application of the proper suite of antibiotics -- several false positives for other things have given way to a "Oh, that's all it is? Well, take these thing for 5 days and call us in the morning." Apparently the problem was slowly resolving itself and the antibiotics are an aid. We'll cross fingers -- my mother is 81 and the less of these thrills, the better.

For my part, I'm slowly advancing on the cardio-therapy/exercise front and in line with another class we're taking I'm getting some extra exercise at home while getting a little more direction on food from a registered dietician. I still hate the bad news I get from reading labels, as fascinating as it is, since
instances of both high fructose corn syrup and the 50% plus of daily sodium requirement (in a single serving!) is making it hard for me to buy frozen food from the national giants. Is there a vinegar-only low salt sauerkraut out there?

Also for my part, the basement warrens are slowly taking shape. I can't believe how many boxes of *stuff* I still have to move or dispose of. I'm aghast at how much old paper there is to go through -- especially the little notes with a partial name and a phone number and a *call today!* that may be from 2007 or may be from the week I went into the hospital with pneumonia in October. A sorting I will go ....

As mentioned on facebook, yesterday my drive home from cardiotherapy included a stop at Barrels Community market for some goodstuff ... and then sightings of a fox, 3 deer, a herd of turkeys, and an eagle. If we move to the city/shore i may miss some of that. of course if we move to the shore i may end up with seals and snallygasters ....

While we were expecting snow, again, and even birds at the feeders, what I wasn't expecting was:

my first red wing blackbird of the spring. Yep, and the blue jays were backing off, because apparently the blackbirds don't take trash talk from blue jays, even solo. Now, I've seen a group of the red wings and jays are yelling more often than usual...

Out the window to my left as I type are is a vague green-white camo-pattern that is the snow in the evergreens, seen through the snow that is falling. The quick eye catches the gray-front, the slow eye catches the blue of the jays; also out there waiting for a turn at the feeding stations -- juncos, Mr. and Ms. Cardinal, and a bunch of the near anonymous birds in winter plumage that look like finches or sparrows or warblers or kinglets or phoebes or tit mice (tit mouses?) or the like. Standing and looking down I can see some of the ground birds hopping among the lower branches; flashing by are chickadees -- I wonder, are they really *that* fast or do they merely appear to moves faster than the other birds?

So there, the morning is crowned and crowded with birds and I will not be going to the office today, alas.

We like to have our train tickets in hand before we head out for the station: an old habit. So today I ordered the tickets for our trip to Denvention, figuring that, with other convention in town that week and operatives moving in ahead of time for the Democratic Convention (which is in town a couple week after us), room on board might get tight.

So I went through with the deal and found space on-board... and discovered that AMTRAK will permit us to pick up the tickets at the station or ... they will charge us $15 for Express Mail delivery. Got to be someone here to sign for them -- Priority isn't good enough... sigh. I feel so secure.

I am not pleased. On the other hand I'm not driving 2200 miles (each way) in high summer just to object.

So far then: we have ordered tickets. We have reserved rooms. We have put in motion requests for party space. We're looking to have a Friends of Liad breakfast. We have each sent off a bio. We have made preliminary arrangements for cat sitter. We have each sent of a photo, we have begun planning what me might read since ... Duainfey will come out at the end of August (or early September) and not the beginning.

I was also going to start my walking tomorrow, so I'll be in decent shape for the Mile High City. On the other hand, there's snow in the forecast, so I did a short walk today, and rescued Santa Claus to boot.
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Amended to add: It looks like, given baggage limitations, that I may need volunteers to bring some items with them to Denvention. If you are going to be driving to the con
and might have room for a box or two around 10X18X11 or 12X12X10 (approximates)and under 30 lbs... let me know. Thx!

version 2

Snow in the forecast:

High wind watch in effect from Friday morning through Friday evening...

Tonight ...Snow likely this evening...then a chance of snow showers after midnight...accumulation of 1 to 2 inches. Chance of snow 70 percent. Friday ... Partly sunny... snow showers in the morning. Blustery with highs around 30. West winds to 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph. Chance of snow 50 percent. Friday Night...
snow showers after midnight. Brisk with lows 11 to 16. West winds to 25 mph. Chance of snow 50 percent. Wind chill values as low as 7 below after midnight.

Spring is in the air... somewhere.

That aside, today had unexpected charm, like the news that the thunk-thunk-kerthunka I was hearing in the car was a sign that the transmission mount is giving up the ghost rapidly, possibly victim of pothole city. Did I mention I saw an accident caused by a pothole yesterday?.... So, it turns out the guys at the shop know my next door neighbor the snowmobile guru ... and they cheerfully drove me home while we wait for pieces to arrive so the car can perhaps be put back together tomorrow.

The catalog beta work goes on, and I'm down to sending letters to the last dozen or so of people who've written that they are missing orders. Once they are contacted ... final run throughs on the catalog. Who knows .. might hit tomorrow as long as the car-stuff isn't too complicated. We shall see.

Snow in the sky, soon to be on the wings of the crows and on my deck...

they tell us we'll have a couple inches of snow today, hooray. Ought to be pretty. One of the worst things about having a winter's worth of snow thawing to the ground is that there's also a winter's worth of dirt, dust, sand, soot, leaves, blown-paper, seed hulls, and bird-stuff among it. A reprieve is fine.

I'm going to be warming up the Subaru RSN for a quick morning trip to town. The Sube's headlight transplant was a success and the tire rotation was thrown in for free; the oil change .... was not gratis. On the other hand, we're set for spring a few weeks early.


The email log jam we experienced lat night is apparently over and I have on hand ten or fifteen real emails on the "where's my book" topic. I'm hoping that'll solve some of the half-dozen "moved -- no forwarding order" and "Undeliverable as addressed" things tucked in a box in the basement. The scary thing is that we've had a number of things come back with "Undeliverable as addressed" that have gone to the same address we've been using for people for more than ten years -- and they haven't moved.

More maybe in a bit, after we see what the PO Box brings.

Tomorrow, plans include a Janis Ian concert!

Good morning Mr. Phelps.

We've already scouted the neighborhood and discovered snow fall of 15 inches and the snow is still coming. Both cars have been uncovered, turned on, and driven to roadside and back in a test of local mobility. An initial deck path has been created and birdfeeders have been primed.

Your assignment is to help me drink this coffee with chocolate in it and then check the regional driving conditions to determine if Rolanni should drive to the city, considering reports of a jack-knifed tractor trailer on Route 201 at Hussey Hill Rd and an official declaration of difficult driving conditions in Fairfield.

Did our official trained weather spotting duty, too, of reporting in with our official weather spotter ID. Don't get much use of that in the summer....

BTW, we hear-tell of an additional 1-3 inches on the way.

Waterville:
http://www.ci.waterville.me.us/mainstcamera.htm

Turnpike:
http://www.maineturnpike.com/html/webcams/#63

Statewide:
http://www.511maine.com/default.asp?display=roadConditions&area=ME_statewide&textOnly=False&date=

With luck today will be a writing day. Lots of catching up if I can nuke this sinus stuff. Cross fingers, plz.

ver 1.11 fixed typoids