C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 204

Home invasion hits apartment complex where we lived…

http://www.krem.com/news/Woman-pistol-whipped-in-70268762.html

Did I tell you we got out of that place because we were living across the landing and directly above people who I doubt would have passed a background check—as evidenced by the armed police takedown that flattened our neighbor on the front lawn? We felt a real urgency to move. This isn't the first time this formerly nice apartment complex has been in the news. When we moved in, they did background checks, meticulously, and by the t...

Writing ahead; took to the ice; and got the skates sharpened.

Apparently I dinged a blade at some point. I'm very careful with my skates, and Larry, who sharpens them, says I could have stepped on one of the threshold screws the hockey teams sometimes expose at the gate—they go out in a huge rush: and they sometimes damage the gate—Though I do watch where I step. I dimly recall at one point last spring doing the dreaded heel-hook with my other blade, and I'm betting on that. Figure skates are open at the back, and if you accidentally, working with your ...

My prediction is a warmer, less snowy winter…

…of course I could be wrong. But our snowfall yesterday melted nearly as soon as it hit, and our prediction of several days of snowfall has moderated to mostly hovering between rain and snow for the rest of the week. Jane and I both prefer the cold: I call 75 hot, and she'll extend her range to about 75, maybe an outdoor 80 with a breeze. Ask me how I grew up in Oklahoma before air-conditioning and it isn't a pretty story.

So here we are, owners of a nice electric snowblower, with two snow...

I was kidnapped…

…and forced to buy shoes.

Jane talked me into a pair of tennies. I cannot wear tennies. They cut the blood off to my toes. But Jane was driving. I had no choice. And I'm amazed. The whole story is on her site, and I won't reiterate that, except to say that these shoes are supposed to give your lower body a workout, build muscle, etc…but what I notice is that they are blissfully comfortable even sitting down, the condition under which my feet generally lose all feeling and control due to blood ...

Piglet flu still has me short of breath, but the skating is improving.

Kids are still out of school, or at least some are, which means terror on the ice…I love the little princess who spent most of her time digging her toepick into the ice near the wall, so that an unsuspecting novice can fall and break his/her neck, but hey, ice is never perfect. It used to be a scary prospect, but I've gotten steady enough (and deep enough in the knees) to skate over such demonic traps. If your knees are bent, your skates glide like a powerboat, heel-heavy, nose light and...

Norton 360 problems…and a fix.

The program would seize up and cause the hard disk to churn endlessly. This is a known issue with a file (svvchst or thereabouts) that is necessary for the program to contact the internet. Now, granted, I probably had issues with a prior installation of Norton: Note: if you are installing ANY new Norton product, first run their Clean Uninstall from their site, rather than Remove Programs (Windows,) being careful with each program to note down your Product Key. Then reinstall the whole lot...

Piglet flu, and back to the ice.

For several weeks Jane and I have traded an ailment that amounts to many of the symptoms of the swine flu, but a pale, pale shadow of it: exhaustion, nagging cough, dizziness, and shortness of breath. It's been going around the rink. It seems to last a week or so, can be accompanied by a headache. They say if you had the swine flu's last incarnation, back in the 50's, you may be immune, or mostly so, so I dunno. Not the dreaded Hamthrax, but Piglet flu. I've been alternately stupid, dizzy...

Matroushka files…nested computer records.

You know. Russian Nesting Dolls.

That's what we've got for a file system. First you crash a computer. But save its files. Do it three times. Then get a new computer and move the files. But restore the files you're working on. Do this through Dos 3.5, 5, Windows, Windows, Windows—not even mentioning IASC art programs and Photoshop, Eudora, Microsoft Office, OZwin, Golden Retriever, Compuserve, XYWrite, Wordperfect, .txt, .doc, .let, .tmp, .mem, .log, etc, etc, etc, from 1980 to 2009. Nest all o...

Generally I think mankind is pretty collectively smart…but…

…are the spammers going broke, or are there enough people out there who will a) take a drug OF ANY KIND provided by a spam sollicitation? Besides the usual, there are people out there offering fake vaccines, etc. b) get a mortgage from an online sollicitation c)write to people offering endangered purebred puppies or millions of Nigerian dollars d) buy a watch from a guy with watches lining his overcoat—or offering facsimiles of Swiss watches via spam. e) believe the lady who has been dying...

Actual results from the diet…

…are good. We're in the Atkins induction phase. We're both the sort that can gain weight on green beans: any sort of carb loves us.  And we wear tutus to skate. Spandex provides a certain impetus to be good.

So we're in the protein-only phase of Atkins. We can have hard cheese, unsauced meat, eggs, and that's about it. I have about 6 ounces of milk every few days, which is the only carb (I know: cheese is milk, but it loses carb somewhere in the cheesification.)

We have one other advantage...