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Winging it
Tonight’s entry may be an exercise in frustration, although the screaming doesn’t come till later.* I can’t get on line. There are two aspects of this: first, I am now utterly web addicted, and certainly while I’m writing blog entries it’s on in the background**, because, for example, I still can’t spell Ctttthullhhuuu without checking*** and second, horror of horrors, what if I can’t get on tonight to post? AAAAAAUGH. My credibility will be destroyed! You’ll all go away in a variety of snits and never come back!† I was also planning on spending the afternoon proofing the FAQ answers I’ve finally sent Blogmom so she has finally set them†† but I didn’t because I can’t get on line.
Dither. Dither. Fret. Dither.
Well, while I’m dithering ††† I can tell you about the weather. It’s raining. Oh gods it’s raining again. It stopped for a while yesterday–I wouldn’t go so far as to say the sun came out, but it stopped raining sufficiently that it didn’t feel like utter madness to get out into the garden and chop things down and pot things on, and grope around among the rampant Japanese anemones for the things I know I planted and which may even still be there.‡
But that was yesterday. Today I didn’t have any trouble squeezing a hellhound sprint in before riding Connie because it was raining so hard I could only take them out for a sprinty sort of sprint, and they still came back sodden and reproachful. Darkness, I think, has some clue that the even hellgoddesses can’t do much about the weather, but Chaos definitely thinks I could if I tried.
Fortunately Jenny has an indoor school, but I left the saddle cover on as we scuttled from barn to arena. Connie went very well, perhaps not least because she had a good twenty minutes warm-up at the walk (I absent mindedly changing rein every few minutes) while Jenny and I discussed the purblindness of horse show committees as to the necessity of planning for bad weather and various other topics of equine interest.‡‡ Also the Magic Strap has done its job: I wasn’t even using it today and I had a Gibraltar-like outside hand, which Connie obviously liked a lot.††† This is not to say we didn’t have our little breakdowns of communication, but they were the simple, straightforward kind, of rider brain failure, the most dramatic one of which was while we were (supposedly) doing a twenty metre circle to the right at the canter, the right being Connie’s stiff side, and we came off the rail at the wrong moment and nearly went over the fence that was suddenly in front of us. It was only about two and a half foot, but big enough that she’d've jumped it rather than just stepping over it, which would have meant that I, too, would have jumped it, or anyway I hope I would have. And she was going forward very nicely at that point too so she would have jumped it and I even felt her GATHERING HERSELF TOGETHER and when I dragged her away at the last moment she went completely inside out and stuttered sideways along the rail again, saying, What do you want, you nincompoop?!, except she’s too nice to say nincompoop, she just said, But what do you want? Oh dear. As Jenny pointed out, I had no business coming off the rail there. Sigh. Precision, precision. When you turn a properly trained horse, you don’t just drag its face in the direction you want to go: in the first place you have (of course you have cough cough cough) got it properly bent round your inside leg and into your outside hand, and then you ask it gently, with tiny closings and openings of your inside hand, to bend a little more toward the inside, which is to say turn. And as soon as it has done so–ie it has obeyed your request–you stop asking, or ‘soften’ with that hand. This is all happening kind of quickly at canter speed. And you know your circles should be, furthermore, round, which means you have to keep asking a little bit and softening a little bit, and don’t forget you still have the other hand to coordinate, not to mention both legs and a seat. . . .
Okay, it’s late, I want to go to bed, and the suspense is killing me. I’ve plugged and unplugged the little broadband gizmo so often that if it were a screw instead of a little plastic plunger I’d've stripped the beggar by now. Deeeeeep breath. . . .
* * *
* Probably. Or it may be a very soon later. Especially since Chaos is doing his no, no, not dinner thing again. Why didn’t Monty Python ever do a sketch about sighthounds and food? I could use a laugh. Or even a memory of a laugh. They had barely begun on human relations with the rest of the animal kingdom with dead parrots and killer bunnies.
** For example I’m now longing to know if the dead parrot is on the web.^
^ Yes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTSAFcLXqYY + Actually you’re spoilt for choice; there are lots of dead parrots. Does the world really need a multiplicity of even so excellent a sketch as this one? No, I didn’t watch them all. This one was just the top of the list. Feel free to do a Goldilocks and find the one that fits you.
+ And so is the killer bunny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg
Note that for the truly squeamish out there, of whom I am proud to count myself one, the very crudeness of the–er–quotidian effects~–is disturbing. I can’t watch the ‘I’ll bite your leg’ scene, also from Holy Grail, and the killer bunny is close.
~ Well, you aren’t going to call them special, are you
*** If anyone is tracking where I go on the web, they’re going to start worrying about the fact that the only pages of Wiki I return to regularly are those concerned with H P Lovecraft.
† Now, granted I don’t see myself writing an entry every night for the next forty years^, but I don’t want just to disappear.
^ 106 sounds like a nice round age.
†† Those of you who are really annoyingly sharp-eyed will have noticed that the opening page of the new web site–the opening page being all there is of the new web site–says that it will be up by the end of August. Ahem.
††† And not screaming. I want note taken of the not screaming.
‡ It’s September. Must get those BULB orders in.
‡‡ Hee hee hee. Apparently Liz is so delighted with how Caprice is going after Jenny and he had a little conversation about obedience and a positive, can-do attitude last week on our memorable hack that she’s asked her to give him a jumping lesson.^ This I have to see. I asked Jenny to ring me, and I’ll move the fences around for her.
^ I’ve told you Jenny’s a professional show jumper, haven’t I? Semi retired. But I suspect she could be lured back into the arena by the right horse. Which I am of course hoping we’ll find when we, which is to say she with me tagging along, go to look at horses soon.
‡‡‡ I’m also flipping shattered, because we spent most of the lesson cantering. Precision at speed is, trust me, hard work, even when it’s the horse who’s cantering. And that was before I spent the evening ringing handbells, so I have no brain either.
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It was raining here today too, but not quite enough to make everything soggy. I do hope you dry out soon. Dry thoughts sent to Hampshire.
Dry thoughts sent to Hampshire.
********* THANK YOU. . . .
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“what if I can’t get on tonight to post? AAAAAAUGH. My credibility will be destroyed! You’ll all go away in a variety of snits and never come back!”
Hah! You would have hordes of us sending panicked messages along the lines of, oh dear Robin are you OK and causing major fires around the world for all the candles we would light, just to make sure that we were keeping our end up. Get rid of us. Not so easy, my dear!
LOL! Thank you!
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Well, I’m glad that the internet connection or whatever is now working!
[I can only assume that that is the case, as this entry is here so that I may comment about it being here... [brain exercises again...aargh... never mind that last sentence]
Hope Chaos changes his mind about stubbornly refusing food. Eat Chaos, EAT!
It rained here too. All day. We had tornado-force winds and flooding-type rain and horrible horrible horrible storm on Saturday, but a marvelous day yesterday. So to wake up to thunder and lightning and pouring rain this morning was no fun. So I sympathize.
Get some sleep!
Hugs and chocolate,
–Julia
I suppose this is the end of Hanna. YOU CAN GO AWAY NOW PLEASE. . . .
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Indeed.
[Pointedly not thinking about the next two hurricanes [Ike and something else... Josephine?] that are on the way.]
Sigh.
:)
–Julia
Forgot to say– sending dry thoughts your way.
Lots of sunshine and clear skies with the odd puffy cloud, and un-soggy earth, and only a few puddles left over to play in if one is so inclines, but small enough to step around if one is not so inclined…
Like that highway in California… Sunshine, Butterflies and Rainbows highway. [this is true. I saw it two summers ago [maybe three now, don't quite remember] when we went to see the redwoods and Yosemite and so on. So beautiful there. But I absolutely loved the fact that the highway was called Sunshine, Butterflies, and Rainbows!]
–Julia
Sunshine, Butterflies, and Rainbows
******* Yes, I’ll have one of those please. :)
:)
I’ll do my best.
Happy thoughts sent all round!
Sleep well!
–Julia
****** Why didn’t Monty Python ever do a sketch about sighthounds and food?
But they did the four yorkshiremen sketch, and it’s true! I nearly got kicked off a bus in Sheffield for choking with laughter when I heard a variation on the theme around bananas – “we only dreamed of bananas in the war” “Dreamed? We never even knew they existed to be able to dream of them” and more…
****** what if I can’t get on tonight to post? AAAAAAUGH. My credibility will be destroyed! You’ll all go away in a variety of snits and never come back!
Promising not to go away in a snit! Here’s another variety of snit ;p http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBeLt2S35G4
I stopped watching when the saws came out. See ‘can’t watch the ‘I’ll bite your leg’ scene’. I am hopeless. I could never write a VAMPIRE novel. . . . :)
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****** I am hopeless. I could never write a VAMPIRE novel. . . . :)
:)
Sorry! This is a bloodless (h)armless note on the knives theme – a poem banned from GCSE syllabus and Carol Ann Duffy’s riposte http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/04/gcses.english
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/06/poetry.gcses
*********I could never write a VAMPIRE novel.**********
Yes, only one about a vampire who never ‘dines’ and his vegetarian friend :)
Well. Ahem. But you don’t know what Con gets up to.
Well. Ahem. But you don’t know what Con gets up to.
Gee. Thanks for rubbing it in. :p
LOL
my sentiments precisely!
LOL On my computer I have a huge array of sound files. Some of which are from Monty Python. And Blackadder. The Black Knight sketch is still funny when you can’t *see* the blood. :) I used to have them on a website but not any more. But I could always email them. ;)
Ooh, speaking of sighthounds, a man came walking past our front garden yesterday while I was weeding, accompanied by two beautiful whippets. One was chocolate brown and the other was a gorgeous blue grey. *sighs happily* Hopefully they’ll come past again, like that crazy Shih Tzu puppy who ran up to us and refused to leave… :-)
“what if I can’t get on tonight to post? AAAAAAUGH. My credibility will be destroyed! You’ll all go away in a variety of snits and never come back!”
I agree with Susan-in-Athens: we wouldn’t go away, but you would be BURIED in e-mails-of-love-and-concern. I would never assume your computer had wigged out, but rather that–well, never mind, but you did say that you might pull a bell down on yourself one day.
The count-down clock says that my copy of Chalice is coming soon, tra-la, at which point I won’t care if it rains, which is just as well, because mostly it does. NYC (and much of North East) seems to be in the tropics these days: afternoon down pours. If I had a dry thought (or sock or umbrella) I’d send it to you.
(will now creep quietly away to look up what “sound file” means)
EAT, HOUND
Thank you! But with my computer karma, it’s a miracle I DO sign on every night ( . . . so far). And my connection IS wonky (although not usually this wonky). If I ever DON’T make it . . . assume it’s the computer!!!!
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(will now creep quietly away to look up what “sound file” means)
When your computer makes noises (like that lovely trademark Windows noise) it is using sound files.
When people go on and on about iPods and mp3 players – they are all music stored as a computer file. :)
So if you have a favourite line in a movie or tv show and you have the right set up you can hook the computer to the dvd or video player and lift the soundtrack from the movie and convert it to a computer file. Then you can set the computer to play those sounds for such events as email arriving. (like on tv when they get an email and the computer says “you have mail”)
Clear as mud? ;)
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I’m also flipping shattered, because we spent most of the lesson cantering. Precision at speed is, trust me, hard work, even when it’s the horse who’s cantering.
I am so with you on that. I had a lesson this week and since my horse is retired and we only amble it was my first serious lesson in 2 months….on a horse that was built like a tank…and I have a skinny Arab. So here I am with my legs screaming at me trying to remember at a trot how to do shoulders in and then switch to haunches in….ow ow ow….
So I’ve tons of respect for you getting it all pulled together at the canter!!!!
Thank you! –But I only do ONE of those lateral things at a time–then go round the arena again and GEAR UP for the next assault!!!
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because, for example, I still can’t spell Ctttthullhhuuu without checking
Oh now–you’ve got a handle on Cthulhu by now, surely! You’re ready for the big guys; I can’t even be sure I’m spelling Yog Sothoth correctly, nor Nyarlathotep… Hastur isn’t so bad–he’s The Unspeakable, but not so much the Untypeable. :)
When VCR’s first became a household item, I think the very first movie my parents ran out to rent was Holy Grail. I was horrified by the Black Knight at the time, but have since overcome my squeamishness; however, I still can’t watch Jabberwocky. Bleh. Gross.
Cthulhu starts sort of marching up and down again in front of my eyes, all those uprights. :) And I wouldn’t DREAM of Nyar . . . Nyar . . . uh. I only do Yog by checking in on my favourite Wiki page. And I don’t even REMEMBER Hastur. (Wait a minute, isn’t he on Stargate? :))
Yes. No. Never saw Jabberwocky. Yes. (No. :))
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And I wouldn’t DREAM of Nyar . . . Nyar . . . uh.
That’s a good thing. If you dreamed of him, it might mean he’d taken an interest in you…. :)
And I don’t even REMEMBER Hastur. (Wait a minute, isn’t he on Stargate? :))
:) Hastur predates Lovecraft, actually, and I believe he figures most largely in August Derleth’s stories. He’s called the Unspeakable, because if you say his name out loud, well… let’s just say you’re taking a calculated risk. :) At least in one of my Cthulhu games.
And you, of course, predate August Derleth. :) It’s all something to do with cyclotrons. . . .
Sauk City, WI has named a bridge in honor of August Derleth–I was rather surprised to see the plaque when I was waiting for a traffic light. Ozymandias, eat your heart out!
LOL!
>I could never write a VAMPIRE novel. . . . :)
BWAHAHAHAHAsnork! Ahem. Sorry. You were saying?
Anyway, rain. Yes, here too. An inch and a half in less than an hour, from a cold front smacking into the tropical climate left by Hanna. :P A bit of dry would be nice, but perhaps we should counsel you instead to embrace the rain philosophically:
1) rain is GOOD for the garden!
2) it’s approaching autumn, and rain followed by a cold snap makes for lovely fall color.
3) there are starving children in Africa who would LOVE your rain (which started out funny in my head, but sadly, is probably all too true).
4) you did voluntarily move to England, which appears to make something of a habit of this “rain” thing.
5) any excuse to curl up with a book and drink hot cocoa is a good one.
6) if (1) is too wet to be true, I understand that water features are growing in popularity. Here’s your chance! …I wonder if horses like rice? :D
BWAHAHAHAHAsnork! Ahem. Sorry. You were saying?
********** Was I saying something? :)
you did voluntarily move to England, which appears to make something of a habit of this “rain” thing.
*********** And secretly I’m RELIEVED. One of the forecasts for the global warming scheme is that we’re going to end up with a MEDITERRANEAN climate. I don’t WANT a Mediterranean climate. I’ll take grey and wet, thanks, if that’s the choice. BUT I STILL GET TO COMPLAIN. :)
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*****what if I can’t get on tonight to post? AAAAAAUGH. My credibility will be destroyed! You’ll all go away in a variety of snits and never come back!*****
Knowing how obsessive and conscientious you are about the daily blog, we’d probably be terribly worried about you and yours, not in snits. Not to worry….
*****you ask it gently, with tiny closings and openings of your inside hand, to bend a little more toward the inside, which is to say turn.*****
That always sounds like blasphemy to me! I ride French/Portuguese school dressage, which entails extremely light contact with the bit, and in turns has the inside rein actually showing visible slack to ensure that the rider isn’t touching it. I think the idea is that if one uses the inside rein one simply causes the horse to fall onto the inside shoulder instead of using his/her hindquarters properly. We have to use the seat and legs ONLY to execute turns, which are done on an axis running through the middle of the horse’s body if one were looking down from above, and NOT pivoting around the horse’s front legs.
Judith
I’m sorry you are having such soggy weather. I hope it clears up soon!
On to a happier subject, I received my copy of Chalice a couple days ago. I loved it! The only problem I had with it was I read it too fast. Now I have nothing to look forward too. I guess I’ll just have to read it again.:) I must say that I have enjoyed every book you have written ( and I own copies of all of them).
Again, I wish you dryer weather, and I hope you have a great day!
Thank you very much! (I’d rather be read than dry, if it comes to that! :))
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what if I can’t get on tonight to post? AAAAAAUGH. My credibility will be destroyed! You’ll all go away in a variety of snits and never come back!
Hah! Actually, I’d stay up clicking the refresh button wondering if you were eeeever going to get online and post. And then I’d check again the next morning, too, until there was finally a “I’m soooo sorry!” post. It’s been a year now (over? almost? should be getting close) and I’m afraid I’ve gotten rather spoiled. Every day, anywhere from 6-8pm (Eastern time, of course), and the later it gets, the more I wonder how late *is* that crazy lady going to stay up tonight?
So, I guess if you didn’t post, I’d just assume you didn’t go to sleep. ;)
Loved the dead parrot. I hadn’t seen that one before.
I’ve plugged and unplugged the little broadband gizmo so often that if it were a screw instead of a little plastic plunger I’d’ve stripped the beggar by now.
Yes, I’ve done that too. And you know, the problem isn’t you. It’s the internet provider being a jerk. My ISP likes to play mind games like that. “No internet for you!” “But I neeeed it! All my friends live in the internet!” I don’t even get more done when the internet goes away. I just sit there and hope it comes back.
Wow, that’s really pathetic.
It’s been a year now (over? almost? should be getting close)
********* Yes, I keep meaning to look it up. It would be worth a post, the first anniversary . . . if I looked it up. . . .
and I’m afraid I’ve gotten rather spoiled. Every day, anywhere from 6-8pm (Eastern time, of course), and the later it gets, the more I wonder how late *is* that crazy lady going to stay up tonight?
So, I guess if you didn’t post, I’d just assume you didn’t go to sleep. ;)
******* SNORK.
Loved the dead parrot. I hadn’t seen that one before.
******** Oh, gods. The generation gap looms. **No one** my age does NOT know a few key Monty Python sketches, that one among them.
I’ve plugged and unplugged the little broadband gizmo so often that if it were a screw instead of a little plastic plunger I’d’ve stripped the beggar by now.
Yes, I’ve done that too. And you know, the problem isn’t you. It’s the internet provider being a jerk. My ISP likes to play mind games like that. “No internet for you!” “But I neeeed it! All my friends live in the internet!” I don’t even get more done when the internet goes away. I just sit there and hope it comes back.
Wow, that’s really pathetic.
********** Yes. And what’s REALLY pathetic is how MANY of us there are.
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It’s been a year now (over? almost? should be getting close)
********* Yes, I keep meaning to look it up. It would be worth a post, the first anniversary . . . if I looked it up. . . .
Well I just did, September 14th coming up soon, the special anniversary edition of: (drum roll) Robin’s blog!
Oh, flapdoodle! Jodi is saying the 12th!
**Oh, gods. The generation gap looms. **No one** my age does NOT know a few key Monty Python sketches**
I was sitting with a younger colleague in the staffroom recently, and he spotted a farewell card lying around for people to sign, for another colleague named Brian, who was retiring. He said, “Oh, I like Brian, I must sign his card,” whereupon I naturally said, ” ‘e’s not the Messiah, ‘e’s just a very nort-ie boy!” The response I got was, “Huh?” It made me feel very old……
LOL!! Oh dear! –So many of those cliches about getting old are true. Especially the ones about ‘how did I get this OLD?’
********* Yes, I keep meaning to look it up. It would be worth a post, the first anniversary . . . if I looked it up. . . .
Your LJ profile says: Date created: 2007-09-12 05:49:53
That’s tomorrow! (I think.)
Oh pook. That means tomorrow is my nephew’s birthday, too, and I still haven’t gotten him a present. At least he’s only going to be two, and won’t remember this when he’s older and I need to be the aunt he threatens to run away and live with.
**No one** my age does NOT know a few key Monty Python sketches,
Well they’re on YouTube now, and my generation is all about YouTube. We’ll get there eventually. ;)
Oh, yeep! TOMORROW! Yeeeep! [thinking hard]
Oh, flapdoodle! Jodi is saying the 12th!
Oh, Susan probably looked up the first post you made. I was checking the date the blog was created. Two anniversaries? ;)
Two is one too many. (Says the woman who has two per MONTH with her husband.) No, to me the anniversary is the FIRST POST. And that’s what I’m going to do. :)
Re: Blog Anniversary/Birthday
The livejournal page says that the account was created one year ago today [the 12th]… HOWEVER, the first actual post was made on the 14th.
So I suppose it all depends how you define the beginning of what began as a way to avoid touring, and grew into something much more!
Maybe that clears up the confusion?
Happy Friday!
–Julia
Yes, I looked it up today and am going for the first entry–so the 14th. See you day after tomorrow. :)
I am one of those people who loves horses and has been taught to ride mostly by sitting up there and not falling off. I’ve had about two real lessons in my life, and most of the horses you see at a summer camp aren’t the best and brightest unless it’s a horse camp that can afford its own horses and does lessons year round. I’ve worked at two that have had wonderful instructors, but at least half the horses are always rude, poorly trained, herd bound, and/or dumb as rocks.
Anyway, when have had a real lesson, I get an awful lot of things pointed out to me by both parties (instructor and horse). My favorite to date has been by the British instructor at one camp I worked at “Fuzzybird, sit on your American fanny, not your English fanny!” (and the horse in question going “yes, please”).
Um. Okay. Well, it’s late at night (as usual) and I’m mind-blasted (as usual) so please explain American fannies as opposed to English fannies.
And just by the way, most camp horses are rude, poorly trained, herd bound and/or dumb as rocks BECAUSE THEY’VE BEEN BADLY RIDDEN BY A BUNCH OF BAD, CARELESS AND/OR CLUELESS RIDERS.
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***American fannies as opposed to English fannies.
Well American fannies are your butt, which is obviously what you’re supposed to be sitting on. English fannies are female genitalia. Maybe you’ve never had an occasion to use the word fanny in polite company and had someone look at you like you spouted off some curses, only to find out that you have indeed said something dreadfully rude. (I have!) Who was to know that once the kids were out of earshot, Julie would swear like a sailor?
There are a whole slew of things that make camp horses the way they are. Definitely being ridden twice a day by 10 year-olds isn’t good for their tempers (the end of the summer ornieriness level is high). Sitting out in a field from September to June probably doesn’t help, either. As I’ve discovered, most people who have enough horses to lease to camps aren’t really in the business because they like horses. We’ve even tried getting horses shipped from Oklahoma, and it turned out they were worse than the ones from our normal Mr. I-Love-Money. (Not just indifferently treated, but [extremely] sick and with ticks and dangerous to ride. A quote from this guy: “Of COURSE he’s bucking, you can’t use LEG on him!)
The third camp I worked at has the good fortune of running a lesson program year-round, and saves the best horses from going back to Mr. I-Love-Money. The difference in them after a year in a nice school versus sitting in the field is amazing.
* precision at speed*….damn right. The instructor’s yelling “Now right rein, right leg and turn left” and my brain says what? which leg was that? why isn’t he going to turn right if I do this instead of cantering left as desired? ” Given another 15 seconds to assimilate, I could then start the painful semaphore of “Oh yeah, leg? Squeeze now? Oh, thanks, leg.. that was good…” At this point we are halfway round the arena past the desired point of action.
The other, hardly-ever instructor, tells you first, while your’e at the walk, so you can run through it in your head. (Then you go home and start practicing it while your’e in bed going to sleep.) Yes, I am still laboring mightily to canter in a circle. She (usual instructor) plans flying lead-changes (dissolve into helpless giggles of incredulity). But anyway, I am Riding a Horse, which I could not do a year ago, so all is totally wonderful.
the basic truth is that Riding a Horse IS totally wonderful and all the rest is detail. :) The main detail is making your horse HAPPY, I feel, and if you miss the occasional making of a circle, if what you ARE doing is comfortable and reasonably balanced and makes sense to the horse . . . well, you can try the circle next time around. :) I do think that an instructor expecting flying changes out of someone who’s only been riding a year however is . . . pushing it a bit.
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Glad the internet connection came out right, and I am trying to find out if someone has ordered an arc yet. I think we might need one.
And about reading/intelligence – my daughter (3 1/2) came home from nursery yesterday with a big box of books – there’s a scheme called Bookstart for pre school children which *makes sure* every child’s parents gets to know about how they can join the library and that (this is my favourite bit) books = good. Books = intelligence. Books = smarter children. Only sad bit is that they have to do this. My daughter joined the library when she was 4 weeks old (ok, she didn’t chose to, nor did she chose the books I got for her. But she has had a library card ever since).
Hoping it’s drier in Hampshire than it is in London.
DRIER? If it gets any wetter we’ll have to grow GILLS.
I like the idea of a four-week-old having her own library card. :)
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I blame the Large Hadron Collider for your inability to get on the internet last eve.
In fact, instead of the panicked, “Robin, are you okay? Did the ME actually physically EAT you this time and you’re never coming back?” messages that any normal person would inundate you with, I probably would have suspected your lack of posting to be a precursor to the Doom Of All Mankind . Which would really suck because I just got “Sealey Head” from the library last night and haven’t had a chance to crack it yet. But, hey, at least I’ve already read “Chalice” so it wouldn’t be *too* bad!
Since it wasn’t doom for us all, I wish for you dry weather and swift bulb delivery.
I blame the Large Hadron Collider for your inability to get on the internet last eve.
********** LOL! I almost posted that tonight!!
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Katherine said:
Which would really suck because I just got “Sealey Head” from the library last night and haven’t had a chance to crack it yet. But, hey, at least I’ve already read “Chalice” so it wouldn’t be *too* bad!
*** ROFL. Because my husband and I had a conversation last night on our way home from our respective workplaces on what we would do if the Black Hole Ate Everyone Else Except Us. And one of my primary comments was that I would be furious because there would be, somewhere over the other side of the oceans of the world, copies of CHALICE that I Would Not Get to Read.
So, uh, yeah, the end of the world can’t happen until next month. The end of next month, given the time it takes to ship books over this way.
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LOL! But what about next year, next book? :)
Isn’t it odd about the internet? Even if one opens the bla-blessed computer out of only mild interest – “I might as well check out this-or-that” – the moment it won’t connect you to the internet that mild or even fairly apathetic interest becomes a violent urge: “Oh, good Lord, why isn’t it working? I must, must, MUST find this-or-that! I will not have a moment’s peace and my life will be a desolate desert without it!” Strange…
Anyway, don’t worry – nobody is going away for ever in any kind of snit, I promise! (My first thought was actually “You wish!”) And as for not writing blog entries every night for the next forty (why not fifty – 116 is an even nicer age!) years, why you won’t even notice, the time will fly by, as always when having fun…(only teasing!:))
(My first thought was actually “You wish!”)
******* LOL!
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It occurred to me later that you’d be 106 in fifty years and 116 in sixty, right? I just took your own word for it that you’d be 106 in forty years (snuffle, whine) and I can’t bother to count and I don’t bother to remember my own age, let alone anybody else’s and…if athletes can have all those excuses for any mistake they’ve made, why can’t I? (whine, snuffle).
Actually, a few years back, at my last job (at a library), two little boys asked me my age, and I told them I was born in 1971 and they could do the counting themselves (so I wouldn’t have to). So they counted and one of them said: “You’re 34 – like Henke Larsson!” Henrik Larsson is a (quite famous) Swedish football-player (soccer – of course!), so I felt that it hadn’t gone at all badly – I’d expected them to think I was ancient!
I don’t do numbers. It makes some things much easier. :)
“Dither. Dither. Fret. Dither”
Ah, good old DDF&D. Aren’t they that firm of solicitors who work with architects, surveyors, builders and the like? :)
And…I can’t remember if I’ve sent you this before but if you would like to give your sense of spatial awareness a little exercise…: http://planarity.net/
Ah, good old DDF&D. Aren’t they that firm of solicitors who work with architects, surveyors, builders and the like? :)
**********They sure are. Third House’s (supposed) builder has (supposedly) heard from the structural engineer and we are now playing phone tag. . . .
And…I can’t remember if I’ve sent you this before but if you would like to give your sense of spatial awareness a little exercise…: http://planarity.net/
*********** EEEEEEEK.
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****And…I can’t remember if I’ve sent you this before but if you would like to give your sense of spatial awareness a little exercise…: http://planarity.net/****
This is EVIL. It would be evil even if I weren’t looking at it at 2:00 a.m.
Speaking of not early. . . .
That planarity thing? I was feeling so good about accomplishing the first level in about four seconds flat, the second in thirteen. And then level three came. That took 4:38. And when I clicked into the next level–also known as the “dotted sphere of doom,” I whimpered. I believe the exact phrase that emerged was, “Oh, I hate you all.”
Curse you AJLR! And curse me, too, cause you know I’m going to go back.
Not me. I took ONE look and BAILED. :)
****I took ONE look and BAILED. :)****
Smart move! :D
This is unrelated to your post but I had to get it in..
ALMOST TIME FOR CHALICE! I CAN’T STAND IT!!!
Hope your weather turns out better. We’re quite droughty here so the rain is sounding attractive. Guess I should go water the flowerpots.
:) Stephanie
ALMOST TIME FOR CHALICE! I CAN’T STAND IT!!!
********* Oh good. We like these kinds of off topic posts. :)
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“You’ll all go away in a variety of snits and never come back!”
Nope. You’ve got us far too hooked for that.
OK, maybe a teensy, miniscule variety of snit.
But then we’d be checking SEVERAL TIMES AN HOUR to see if you’re back, unless you post a pre-emptive ‘gottatakabreak’ type post. I mean, more than the normal :-)
Hugs, gentle drying breeze, appetite-stimulating (I assume you have tried MSG? Ghastly stuff but it’s the only ting that would get a friend of mine to eat), champagne and inspiriing thoughts your way
Nope. You’ve got us far too hooked for that.
****** OH good. :)
I’m DEADLY allergic to MSG. I’m not going to try it on anyone else. . . .
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I’m DEADLY allergic to MSG. I’m not going to try it on anyone else. . . .
**** yes it is rotten stuff, and I avoid it madly myself. I have no problem with a lack of appetite whatsoever :-). But the reason its so prevalent is precisely because it’s an appetite stimulant. When a friend was very ill the hospice advised it – and it did work.
It’s a matter of balance…
As ever, sending you and your hounds good wishes and fine weather manifesting-type thinking.
“a variety of snits”
I love this – sounds like a disease, or alternatively, some kind of goblin-folk
:)
Snits. Yes. Very gobliny. :) Or possibly magic gnomes.
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****first, I am now utterly web addicted****
Good heavens, yes, and shame on you all for bringing a woman to this state. Now I REALLY don’t go to bed early.
We are supposed to get rain tonight, which would make me immensely happy. Believe me, I would take some of your Hampshire rain–enough to keep grass seed moist for about two weeks. Weather ought to be a little more cooperative.
****Chaos is doing his no, no, not dinner thing again.****
Any news from the lab? Anything he likes (I know: HA HA) to eat that you haven’t given him on his current diet? :: presents handful of straws :: Have you ever considered acupuncture?
Hmm. HOmeopathic vet does acupuncture too. I should ask him.
I’ve FORGOTTEN what it’s like to go to bed early. Define ‘early’. Before 1 am? I’m averaging *3* these days, which is really NOT good.
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****Define ‘early’. Before 1 am?****
That would be early for me. Lately it’s been 3:00 for me, too–which, you’re right, is not good. Even if it’s because I’ve dozed off in front of the computer–talk about sick–and then wake up and finish what I was doing, which is all too often reading blog-and-comments. Gah! :)
I only sleep in the bath! :)
***† Now, granted I don’t see myself writing an entry every night for the next forty years^, but I don’t want just to disappear.
^ 106 sounds like a nice round age.***
Robin, sweetie, you’ll probably throw things at me for being a pedantic whatsit, but I rather think you’ve just prematurely aged yourself by ten years…….;-)
Of course, unco-operative internet connections can have that effect on you, as I know from bitter experience (usually accompanied by much swearing and banging of assorted bits of technology on my part…) Hope the wretched thing starts behaving itself properly now.