C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 88

Working but not fast enough. I’m trying a new software.

So go ahead if you want to try to register. If you get stopped or get a snarky message, you hit the software. If this happens, e-mail me as cj@cherryh.com and I’ll get you through manually. This particular software can get too aggressive and has a lot of checks and blanks that I can poke—or not—depending on what works, and if I’m not careful I can lock myself out. So let’s see how this goes. I’m strongly suspecting hotmail has been made into a spam portal for a flood of bad folk. This particular software is—well, we’ll see.

Just so you should know, hotmail.com is the origin of at least half the spam we get…

I don’t want to put hotmail.com on the comments-banned list because many of you legitimate folk are using it, but if you start having e-mail troubles, consider switching to another service. Right now, out of 25 new spammers, 15 were hotmail, and 4 were outlook. The foreign spammers are definitely using it, and it’s taking half an hour of my work time to clear these toads out of the soup every morning.

if you want to register for this blog…

e-mail me personally at cj@cherryh.com and tell me your preferred user name; I’ll sign you on myself and e-mail you a temporary password. The press of spambots trying to register is too great, over 10 an hour—I’m deleting all registrations via the usual source and am going to find a software to blitz these bots, but I’m just back from a trip and haven’t the brains to deal with it at the moment. So just write me and don’t be shy. I’ll do that by hand and you’ll be in.

Finally back…much to tlell…but all seems well…

We helped my brother with his pond on an emergency basis when we got to his house…and we arrived back to a mess with the koi pond (we are draining and filling as we speak: our big kok are ok, but we don’t know about the little ones—can’t see into it. We have what’s called a green water condition, and we’re fiding it asap. If we’d been a day later getting home, we would have lost fish for sure.

We’re breaching the diet for one night to order pizza.

We have work to do, but so far it looks good.

A message from Fearless Leader…

Facing the better part of 500 spam attempts—I have not accepted any new memberships registered in the last week or so. If you are a real and since person unfortunately caught in the mass deletion of the spam-net, please do sign up for the site again, and this time try to post a message to me. A message (not about free vacations and handbags and inheritances) may wait a time unanswered until I can get to it and actually put the magical ‘approved’ stamp on it—but the presence of that message in queue will assure you don’t get caught in the spam-barrier. (It’s so strange to see 14 ‘Victorias’ in a row, all with different last names, trying so persistently to sign up. Coincidence does happen…but that number of Victorias is a bit trop de bizarre..

We’re…

…taking a little R&R.

Thirty-eight spammers on Transport 18…

…mnnnn, no, that’s another filksong.

Got ‘em. If you’re not one and got caught in the tide of shoes and purses and brides from Asia, let me know. SIgh.

Got the Forester to the dealer, oil change, checkover…

Clean bill. I thought it was 120,000 miles. Actually it’s 130,000.

I also checked out the head gasket problem…a nice spendy item that was an issue in models prior to 2004, and we are a 2004. Yay!. The 2004′s and ’5′s have a catalytic converter issue that can flare up, cost about 500.00 — not nice, but not catastrophic. We did talk to our old dealer, who is still there. He showed us the 2014 Crosstrek, and that will be the one that goes hybrid. Alas, it’s got a cramped back end, no room for the kittehs AND our luggage and a roof pod costs 400.00 and would cut down the gas savings. So I think the Crosstrek, hybrid or not, is off our list, and with it probably goes the Prius, which is built very similarly.

OK, now I’ve revised my math to reality. The 2004 Foresters get about 21 miles to the gallon, averaged, based on 60% city driving, 40% highway. The Forester 2014 gets 27 at the same ratios, without being hybrid. That means, if we put 10,000 miles on in a year, at 4.00 a gallon, we are paying $450 a year more in gas running the 2004 than we would pay for a newer car that won’t surprise us with mechanical issues. That slowly adds up: we’ve had this car nearly 10 years. So over a decade, that’s 4,500 dollars we could have saved if the 2014 model had existed. In other terms, if we COULD have bought the 2014 engine instead of the 2004 one hundred thirty thousand miles ago, we would have saved nearly 5000.00.

On the other hand—we HAVE saved money over this ten years by not driving a Hummer, eh?

We at least have something to think about—and we know that the 2004 owes us nothing, now: we joke that if it dies on the road, somewhere west of Idaho, hey, it’s had a good life, and we could go to an Idaho dealer no worse off than we are…and we don’t think it will fail us on a trip. I looked up the stats on the 2013—actually only 200 per annum off from the 2004 in gas savings. But the 2014 is twice that, at 450. So it’s worth thinking about.

It doesn’t make sense to buy early in the year, either, but one more year trading in the 2004 is one more year off the trade-in they’ll give us. We’re not totally hung up on color—Subaru colors are always a matter of choosing the least awful—so buying the tail-end-of-the-model year choices is not a bad thing. The only thing we’re really set on is our heated seats and cloth, not leather, seats. So it’s probably worth considering, depending on the balance between the diminishing trade-in and the considerably better gas mileage.

Two pounds down…

There’s a tiny bit of onion in the Atkins recipes, and that causes water retention, especially for us. We’ve been struggling with attitude and ‘where’s the pony’ thoughts regarding slow progress, and also getting a shade weary of the same 3 meals since March, lunch and dinner. SO…I began doing a little improv on the theme, using their plastic containers, but our own ingredients, like broccoli, like Ancho Chicken, etc, and wonder of wonders, off comes the weight. Water weight. We’d been getting svelter all along, but it hadn’t been showing. Color us happy!

I’m now officially lighter than I’ve been since about 1983, after the big weight gain when I got back from England. Jane is losing at the same rate. I don’t know where she is on her personal time scale.

But shall we say, I am going to treat myself to a new pair of jeans.

Raining cats and dogs…which is a good thing…

We’ve been dry for a while, and we’re headed into July and August when we have more heat and less water.

Jane set my fig bush out yesterday: it’s liking the weather: so are all our new and transplanted trees, except the Harry Lauder’s Walkingstick isn’t looking so great. We might lose it, but it hasn’t produced the effect we hoped.

The little fig has been a hoot. It only cost me 5.00 and when it came I despaired of it: two mangy leaves and no change at all after being set under growlight for a couple of months…

Then it woke up and grew leaves, five big ones. And then it bloomed—which for a fig, since figs ARE the blooms—means it has three little figs on it. It’s only half a foot high.

So now it’s in the garden. Allegedly these can survive a Spokane winter quite handily. It’s a Chicago Fig. And I am inordinately fond of figs. If ever we can get a single edible fruit off this plant, I’ll have been entertained.

Its growth potential, however, is a bush as high as my head, with huge leaves, and a lot of fruit. I wouldn’t object. The leaves are pretty and only my waistline would suffer.