C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 97

And now, for the weirdness in the week…

Jane opens my door at 4:30 am to tell me the garage doorbell has gone off—a detached garage on the other side of the garden, its big door on the other side of the fence. This is a remote doorbell we have in the garage to signal one of us needs help. It had waked her up, so she hurried to see if I was in bed and not out in the garage locked out of the house at 4 am in the dark and freezing cold.

So we wonder if we have a burglar who’s hit the wrong button to open the door.

Or a stray cat with thumbs.

We consider calling the police, just to check it out. But Jane thinks it’s a malfunction. She says the front well misbehaved a few days ago and rang several times for one push.

We get the garage door opener, and open the door to see if anybody runs out. Twice. Nada.

It goes off again. It’s a cold morning, a little rime of ice. Maybe moisture’s gotten in it.

Maybe, though this doorbell unit is only a year old, we have a problem.

Maybe it needs a new battery. It is a wireless remote.

The darned thing is continuing to go off periodically. Definitely not a burglar. I think we may try a battery change.

Scary week—

Had the doc turn up a thyroid problem, nodule. I opted for an ultrasound, which turned out to show three nodules. I opted for a biopsy, which involves a thin needle into the thyroid while you’re not out cold, nor in any wise sedated or restrained.

Piece of cake: doc deadened it really well, and it went very smoothly, no pain except stiffness for holding the angle for an hour. I’ve had flu shots hurt worse.

Then a wait for the results.

And benign. No problem. We are very pleased.

Higgs-Boson news…

Higgs Boson

I kinda like the notion we live in molasses…it explains so much perversity, like butterside down…

On Wednesday night Through the Wormhole (Science Channel) is going to have a special on the Higgs field theory.

Hope our friends in Texas are ok…

…with the duststorm coming in.

Seems to me when I lived in the area we ALWAYS got them when we had a big CME and especially with auroras due to display way far south. I’ve always been curious whether there’s a link.

CME headed here from Sun…

A coronal mass ejection, not to be confused with the far more problematic EMP (electromagnetic pulse)

We could see a comet. PAN STARRS has made its loop of the sun safely and is coming back, same time same path, only a bit further over…

We could see auroras…

But…we have cloud cover. Sigh.

It is the Ides of March! FYI.

The Roman calendar counts thusly: the Kalends is the first of any month. The 7th or 9th of the month is the nones. (nines). The 13th or 15th of the month (depends on length) is the Ides.

Pridie means ‘the day before’

So pridie kalendae Octobri is Sept 30. Kalendae Octobri, or Kal Oct, is Oct 1. Oct 2 is viii pr non oct, that is, 8 days before (pr) the nones of October.

Hence Beware the Ides of March means Beware of March 15th.

This is why tax turn in day is April 15—because the US government just didn’t want to put up with the jokes…and they sure didn’t want to go with April 1.

Roman Calendar

Got a new guitar tuner…

…with a clipon pickup, to make it more accurate. Korg brand, FYI. I had a real nice Boss tuner that was going ‘off’ gradually. A 12-string shares some characteristics with a sitar—the harmonics of some guitars can get real tricksy: not all 12s, but some, have a secondary resonance on some pitches that just drives you nuts trying to tune them. My old birdseye maple Martin had a raft of hidden resonances. This far more modest Ibanez’s B and E are particularly a pita.

For those of you who haven’t seen a 12 string close up, every note has 2 strings, a high and a low, except the highest, which has 2 of the same.

The Ibanez is a ‘knockoff’ guitar, ie, patterned on a more expensive one, is far quieter than the maple one; and I rejoice to say this plugin sensor that clips to the headpiece is a joy and will tune it perfectly in less than five minutes. Do me credit, after the last time Mike Briggs worked it over, I was able to keep it *almost* in tune for months of not playing it. But—almost in tune is the most painful of all.

So I’ve resolved I want to play again. It’s been 10 years. My eyesight is such I have to memorize the lyrics—because I can’t read them at the range your music sits at most filks. But—I want to try. So I clipped the nails on the left hand and plan to spend a bit each day, getting my calluses back—they return fast, if you’ve ever had a really good set of them. Nothing like the pain of the first time. The first time—you just plan to bleed and play on… Now—my fingers will get a little zingy for a few hours, but that will go by the next day; etc. And after a couple of weeks they’ll have a nice callus.

Why a 12? Dunno. I decided I wanted to learn guitar back in the 80′s, so I went down to the store and tried some. I tried the 6 and it hurt like hell. The 12 double strings spread out the contact so to me it doesn’t go straight to the bone the way the 6 string does. And I like the sound.

I’m not much for listening to music of any kind unless I’m equally armed. I can’t sing worth a damn unless I have a guitar in hand. Then I can stay on pitch, mostly. Be warned, world.

The deluge is coming…it’s going to rain, and rain, and melt…

Don’t be concerned about us: we live on a basalt ridge that survived the Missoula Floods 13,000 years ago. But when a warming trend and rain simultaneously hits the west coast (Seattle) and holds all the way across, we not only have abundant rain, but a lot of winter snow starts melting all at once, and the snow level on this system is set to rise fast. The usual areas of Spokane are likely to take on water, an area called something like Happy Valley, Riverside Drive, and the area along the St Jo—as the Spokane and Little Spokane and St Jo rivers all head westward, joined by snowmelt from the mountains. The waterfalls, like Palouse Falls and Multnomah, will get pretty.

On the other hand, in Seattle, motorists will be assisting confused salmon to cross the roads, that sort of thing (there are photos) and low lying areas will, again, flood. Snoqualmie Falls should be something else, as major snowmelt comes down from the Cascades.

This is when the Pacific NW tends to believe spring is coming, and will be a good time to start thinking about the fishes. This morning, a last gasp of winter, we had hoarfrost on things, which has now gone. But I think we are, after a chaotic winter, going to make the ‘melted by St Paddy’s Day’ normalcy for the shift toward spring.

I’m getting into a chili sort of mood…

ONION-FREE CROCKPOT CHILI

Needed:

2-3 lbs ground beef, lower fat. 2 tbs virgin olive oil or other shortening to prevent burning.

Salt, Black pepper, Cayenne pepper, or red pepper flake; Cinnamon; Clove powder; thyme powder, ground cumin; Allspice; dark red hot chili powder; paprika if not allergic. Mole sauce, if used.

Can black, kidney, or pinto beans

Can of tomato paste or of diced tomato, as you prefer.

Sear, and salt, start cooking; water added as needed. Add tomato, add pepper 1 tsp each; add cinnamon, clove powder, thyme, cumin, paprika (if used)1 tbs each; 1/3 cup basil leaf (dry); ½ cup chili powder; ½ cup mole (if used). Cook a couple of hours; add beans 1-2 hours before serving, continue cooking; continually taste the dish to be sure the flavors you like are to the fore: if you don’t taste enough of something you like, add more.

This chili has a sort of Middle Eastern flavor. Good on rice, over nachos, spaghetti, and of course by itself. We add a dollop of sour cream, a few sliced jalapenos, and a lot of shredded cheddar.

We’re allergic to the whole lily family: onion, garlic, chives—and to the preservative used in onion powder, garlic powder, etc. So are many other people. So I offer a new mode of spicing that can give you plenty of bite without the troublesome lilies.

Happy daylight savings TIME CHANGE, all!

It is. It did.

We had a party last night, which lasted fairly late…so our household (read, Jane) is still abed.

We ate way too much pizza.

I, being a wuss, and tired, turned in a wee bit early. But it was fun. We had ball-jointed dolls all over the place. I don’t follow all the conversation, but I do appreciate pizza and people having a good time. Nice folk, all.