C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 144

We went over to Seattle to visit Jane's brother, and it was a hard trip…Ysabel's sick.

Gut pain, serious, continual gut pain. We're having her checked by the vet asap. Getting her home, she couldn't even stand to be put in a carrier: I carried her back to the house in my arms, very carefully. She's drinking, she's eating, but she's been unable to keep food down and she's mad and hurting; which means she hit Eushu with no punches pulled, which means Eushu attacks back with the force of a bowling-ball, and then she gets really upset, because it really hurt. It was like that. They fought. This didn't help either of them.

We're having an evening. THis was going to be a great week: the long (48 year) postponed trip to see Crater Lake, room at the lodge, Jane and I and OSG, for OSG's birthday, and we have to cancel. OSG's been incredibly understanding and sweet about it, and we are just so sorry to screw things up. It's like there's a disaster of some kind every time I try to visit Crater Lake; and this year has just had a cloud over it…Enough to make you superstitious. If OSG goes alone I hope she has a really, really good time.

 

Jane has 2 new slideshows: a rainbow; and Eushu.

What more could you ask? Sincere cute alert.

BTW, the bridge seems to be settling…

…in a good way. No splits have appeared, and it no longer creaks and gives conspicuously. Because it is an arch, the stresses are spread along the span, it is exposed to sun above and humidity below, and I think it's kind of settling-in, in a carpentry sort of way. You no longer hear alarming sounds as you walk across it. I make several trips a day, tending to filter cleaning, etc, and hopefully it will be good as it weathers and ages. We're not sure what its weight limit is, but so far it seems good for around 200 lbs, and is feeling steadier than it did.

 

Now and again you screw up something you're so used to doing…

I hardly use a recipe for bread any longer: cup and a half of warm water, 3 glugs of olive oil (from a liquor dispenser), 50 cent sized center of your palm of salt crystals (sea), then 4 cups sifted flour, a big pour of wheat bran, and 2 tsp of yeast. Only two things are critical to be exact: the water—and the flour. I have a mortally hard time sifting flour without having it all over the kitchen, so I have to set the sifter down and avoid compacting the flour, which screws the measure.

It must've sat too hard. The resulting mix was a brick. I saw it not forming a ball, tested the consistency, and the cure for brick is, yes, a tablespoon more water, but this was really a brick:  add 2.

Well, I was right the first time. I added too much water. It's tricksy to do it visually. Mixing was turning up a slop. So…the cure for slop is a big dash of flour. I did.

I think I finally got it right. A cautious poke proved less bricklike. It looked normal. We'll see what bakes up.

 

Meanwhile the h key on this keyboard has something under it—quel pain!—requiring many retypes to get it right. And I can't find the little tube that focuses the canned air cleaner. I'm going to have to get some sewing thread to get it dislodged.

 

A quiet day…a good one.

Jane got the last of the plantings done. I got the UV filter fixed on the fish pond.

And if you wonder why the Scribometer hasn't moved, it's because after Jane being sick, and now that she's getting well, —even though I kept writing through the worry and the upset, it's not up to my standard. I thought of throwing out everything I've done and starting over, and then I started reading it and then my fingers began to twitch, and there we are: a rolling deep rewrite, and a really, really good feeling about what I'm doing.

Upgrade completed: looking good.

If you note any problems, let me know.

I'm liking it so far. Much improved re my dashboard. Can't tell how members see it. There's this lovely icon called 'kitchen sink' that has some hidden functions. Love the name.

Do not be surprised at a temporary outage on any of our pages

We will be doing maintenance over the next couple of days, and if anything goes right, you won't notice it; if anything goes wrong, well, we'll fix it, but be patient.

Working, working, working…

took a little time off to go out and feed the fishes, who have picked a 97 degree day to come out from under their shelter and eat. But it's good to count heads and find all the ones who were there…the eagle is staying away, and that suits us.

On the other hand, our chosen seating around the pond is the traditional ceramic drum-style stools, which lead me to believe Japan does not have many 97 degree days. My backside found the usual seat more than its usual 'comfortably warm.'

Eushu got his rabies shot today, and his tag (as if a kitten would wear it) and he hissed at the vet. Our lad is getting quite a potty-mouth as he matures. He weighs 4 whole pounds. And we are looking at that coat of his with some curiosity. His first kitty-mama did say that there could be Bengal cat in the mix—and far from losing his baby spots, they are spreading into rosettes in the black coat, a leopard-style marking akin to what a black leopard shows in the right light angle. He's definitely domestic on one side of the blanket, but the other? We are seeing some interesting behaviors, and a phenomenal jumping ability.  I was dicing some chicken for our supper the other day, and suddenly realized the kitten had leaped up to the pull-out cutting board and was hanging on, watching with interest. I told Jane—we're going to have work staying ahead of this one.

Jane planted the chrysanthemums, and we watered the new plants against the burning heat today. I am not fond of temperatures above the 70′s. This is, however, finally normal for summer. The plants will grow, and maybe things will get into good order for winter. Which could come early this year, or be as tardy as summer was in coming.

You may have noticed we like anime…

…and we're really into tremendously long series with good characterization.

Found one. Hikaru No Go. About a boy prodigy in an obsessive and cerebral adult game (Go) that you could call Asian chess—it's a really good story with actual re-watch capability. Available in Japanese on streaming Netflix: 75 half-hour episodes. No, you don't have to know Go to enjoy the story, though you will learn some along the way. Honestly, as Jane said, it's a good thing we didn't find out about this game when we were kids. It would be very easy to get sucked in…and in this country, there aren't that many people to play it with!

 

One tree planted…white and black iris dug, pond drained…again.

I've not been satisfied with the pond chemistry—nor have the fish, who are in hiding. So I drained off 2400 gallons and refilled, rebuffered (addition of calcium and other elements to stabilize the water ph), dechlorinized, and helped Jane help out our neighbor, who's suffered a flare up, apparently, of an old knee injury: he's laid up, the weeds have grown along the fencerow, and in exchange for four nice Wenatchee apples Jane and I took the weedwhacker to the fence area on his side. I hope this will help him out. We'd have gotten a few more, but our whacker ran out of line, and I've got to get more. But if they like, we'll do that chore now and again. I rather like running the weedwhacker, far nicer than a lawnmower—at that, I draw the line; but I learned to use a good old-fashioned two-handed long-handled scythe (and the short one) when I was a youngster, and the weedwhacker has a little of that satisfaction. I love doing in weeds.

Our waterlily bud that has been hanging fire since May has opened for the 4th of July.

Joan's husband Buzz stopped by to be sure we have our invitation to their lawn party tonight (view of fireworks downtown) —we certainly do—and we gave him the tour. I forgot that Buzz hasn't seen the garden since he helped us move dirt a long time ago.

The one tree we planted is a chocolate mimosa: a mimosa with dark bronze leaves: it will shade the walk near the fence, and the other is a Japanese flowering cherry, fullsize type, that we are trying to site. We think we know where we want it. We think we are going to move the arch (and its clematises) this fall to be a gateway to what will be a separate water feature in the back—a running stream, for which we have the gradient—and a lotus pool.  I have always wanted lotuses. Or A lotus—they're quite large.