ㅁ Maps - conjured, imagined - and stored, abstract, as all ones and zeros, then rendered upon request, sent streaming through the internet and displayed as vast, complex portraits.
– a reverse nonnet.
Month: September 2021
Caveat: Tree #971
This tree enjoys mist and drizzle.
[daily log: walking, 4km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: frame-wedging hell
This is not really a frame shop journal – it’s just a thing that happened at work today.
We got this frame that we’d ordered, so I set to put it together. The company that provides us with the pre-cut frames, Larson-Juhl (incidentally owned by Berkshire Hathaway AKA bazillionaire Warren Buffet) always cuts these nice little slots into the corners of the wooden frames, which are a standardized size to receive these little plastic wedge thingies. You just pound them in, and everything is so precisely cut that the corner has a nice, neat, ideal join.
But this time, the wedge shapes were different than the standard. The standard plastic wedge thingies wouldn’t fit. And they hadn’t sent us any alternate wedge thingies to slip into the slots at the corners.
I was stymied. Then, being far too clever for my own good, I decided I could make my own. I carved them out of bits of scrap wood I had lying around. And in fact, they fit in very nicely, and did a good job.
In this picture, you can see a frame corner, with my custom wooden wedge thingy making the join, and a standard plastic wedge thingy standing nearby for comparison – it looks like a little brown plastic Star Wars TIE Fighter.
Unfortunately, this ended in disaster. As soon as I inserted the picture and glass, and began applying the special staples to hold everything in, the corner wood bits cracked. I tried to salvage my clever connectors with a bit of super glue, but the super glue seeped onto the front side of the frame and corroded the fine, smooth finish of the frame. Result: frame ruined, and 4 hours wasted, and we have to re-order the frame (hopefully this time they’ll either use the standard cut, or send us new, correctly-sized wedge thingies).
Caveat: Poem #1871 “Too many blows”
ㅁ Oh, and then the rain came hard, pounding down, its drumming sound in the yard leaving all the gravel scarred.
– an englyn penfyr.
Caveat: Tree #970
This tree brooded.
[daily log: walking, 2.5km]
Caveat: FORTRAN to the 2020’s and beyond
I associate the FORTRAN computer programming language with the 1980’s. It was already looking a bit long in the tooth when Michelle took a course on it at Univ of Minnesota in the mid 1990’s (and where I dipped my hand in it, because… well, Michelle and I did a lot of things together). It was still being used for business and scientific applications.
Apparently some guy has written a modern website controller in FORTRAN. So he can run his website. That’s interesting.
Caveat: Poem #1870 “Jabberwockism”
ㅁ Sometimes I utter nonsense. To myself. Mumassa helf. Lavik lence. Oof. Silence.
– an englyn cil-dwrn.
Caveat: Tree #969
This tree saw wall section 3 of 10 installed on the treehouse.
Here’s another angle. I had seen a hole in the rain, and jumped in.
Meanwhile, a pair of young deer visited the driveway.
[daily log: walking, 3km; banging and sawing, 2hr]
Caveat: Poem #1869 “Not like normal”
ㅁ I have been getting older, recently, indecently. I shudder and wonder.
– an englyn cil-dwrn.
Caveat: Tree #968
This tree lurked among large, fallen branches detached from the treehouse-trees.
[daily log: walking, 1km; spaghettizing, 1hr]
Caveat: The Internet of Hats
Lest my incessant postings of trees and poetry bore you, there are other options on the internet.
There’s a guy who has a blog of nothing but hats.
Caveat: Poem #1868 “Forty-first stanza”
ㅁ Kiamon stared at the mist and the trees. Recent events filled her soul with unease. All of reality's rules had been bent. Now she'd just wait and would see how things went.
– a quatrain in dactylic tetrameter.
Caveat: Tree #967
This tree saw that the neighbor’s well had been installed.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km; hammering and banging, 1hr]
Caveat: Poem #1867 “Fortieth stanza”
ㅁ Kiamon studied the map in detail trying her best to determine her trail. Hopelessly lost, she set out in the end, randomly choosing a turn past the bend.
– a quatrain in dactylic tetrameter.
Caveat: Tree #966
This tree saw me adding a second wall-section to my treehouse. I plan a total of 10 semi-pre-fab wall sections, five on the south side, five on the north side.
Here are some other views of it.
[daily log: walking, 2.5km; hammering and banging, 3hr]
Caveat: Poem #1866 “The dogs of this here island”
ㅁ A dog rode in a truck's back. Another dog watched, jaw slack. A third one sprawled on its back.
– an englyn milwr.
Caveat: Tree #965
This tree beetled close to the brink.
[daily log: walking, 4km; retailing, 6hr]
Caveat: Poem #1865 “Maintenance”
ㅁ I checked the water cistern: not filling. I tried cleaning a filter; that made it somewhat better.
– an englyn penfyr.
Caveat: Tree #964
This tree saw a nearby blueberry bush shift to fall colors.
[daily log: walking, 4.5km; retailing, 7hr]
Caveat: Poem #1864 “Arcata, California, 1971”
ㅁ The road is wet; the cars can make a sound evoking rainy childhood days inscribed by ancient time across the mind's expanse, that rise unbidden, closing off the now.
– a quatrain in blank verse (iambic pentameter).
Caveat: Tree #963
This tree saw a shell on the railing that a raven had left behind.
[daily log: walking, 2km; boating, 15km]
Caveat: Fishing Report #(n + 29)
We left the dock at 7:30.
The sea was calm when we started out. Based on the marine forecasts, I was trying to hit a “hole” between two fronts of the storms we’ve been having, and it seems like I did it right. Tomorrow is supposed to see “gale” conditions on Bucarelli Bay.
We went out and started trolling along Cemetery Island, just outside the north entrance to Port Saint Nicholas.
In fact, it felt like Arthur’s heart wasn’t in it. He didn’t want to go out farther, so we turned around and trolled southward, back past the north entrance, along the Coronados to the south entrance. And having caught nothing, Arthur started pulling in the lines without even commenting. It was like the whole fishing trip was just “going through the motions.”
We returned to the dock at around 9:45.
“Skunked” – though I’d call this a self-goal, to a certain extent.
With so much of the day still remaining, I decided it was a good time to check the running condition of the GDC (my RV camper). Its battery was dead. So I’ve been charging it.
Year-to-date totals:
- Coho: 15
- Kings: 0
- Halibut: 10
- Muy Grande Halibut (> 50lbs): 2
- Other: 3
- Too-small fish sent home to mama: 28
- Downrigger weights left on the bottom of the sea: 1
Caveat: Poem #1863 “Things in -ato”
ㅁ The lowly greenhouse... I grow, amid weeds not from seeds, my tomato, perhaps a few potato.
– an englyn penfyr.
Caveat: Tree #962
This tree saw the well-drillers who drilled our well two years ago return, to drill a well on the neighbor’s lot to the east (Lot 75).
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Poem #1862 “The rain came”
ㅁ Just in case we were having a drought... well, we were not having a drought. The rain came and moistened leaves. The rain came to wash roads. The rain came and pooled. The rain fell down. The rain hung. The rain came.
– a nonnet.
Caveat: Tree #961
This tree saw my little colorful plastic windmill-thingy spinning in the rain.
I had a lot of greenhouse tomatoes.
I used several of them, and some elk meat Joe gave us, to make spaghetti.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km]
Caveat: staff meeting
Seen online:
“If you see me talking to myself, forget about it. I’m just having a staff meeting.” – the internet.
Caveat: Poem #1861 “This poem is self-aware”
ㅁ No poem is shorter than this. But words rise from the abyss. Stopping now would be remiss.
– an englyn milwr.
Caveat: Tree #960
This tree said “Oh deer.”
[daily log: walking, 3km]
Caveat: noisier
The first thing Arthur said to me, this morning:
“It has come to my attention that the world is a lot noisier than I thought it was.”
This is a remarkable sign. I take it to mean that his hearing aids seem to have been adjusted properly.
Caveat: Poem #1860 “Imitation”
ㅁ I set things up and ran it. But then the server just quit. I guess I'll take a break, sit.
– an englyn milwr.
Caveat: Tree #959
This tree (an abstraction, admittedly) represents the status of the apache (webserver) services on my main server for the new website.
Today was not normal not just because of software woes.
Arthur went to see the VA audiologist in Ketchikan. Mid-day appointments in Ketchikan are possible, but involve a full-day’s journey. I drove Art to the ferry this morning, leaving the house as 5:45 AM. His ferry trip embarked at 8, he arrived in Ketchikan at 11, he had his appointment at 12, he got on the return ferry at 3:30, I picked him up at 6:30, and we got back to the house at 8 PM.
Arthur was tired but, he said, they had finally helped him to adjust his hearing aids better. This is amazingly good news! We’ll see how it pans out. They also told him that his hearing had worsened quite a bit – which wasn’t news to me, but was, of course, news to him. But now maybe, hopefully, he’ll wear his now better-working hearing aids more often.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km; driving, 135km]
Caveat: Unscheduled Maintenance
Today has been stressful. But stress “of my own creation,” for a change – since it has been about this volunteer systems administrator role I’ve taken on for this new version of the old website.
The website crashed this morning. In a way where I didn’t understand what was going on, where we had to take it offline and study the problem with limited resources, where we had to deal with all the customers (users – these are not paying customers, it’s a free site) who wanted to know what was going on.
We made progress on diagnosing the problem, but the site is still offline. Tomorrow I’ll work on trying to get it back up and available again.
