had a kitteh scare…

Seishi had a real 24 hour bout with nausea. This being (of course) Saturday we had to hale him forthwith into the vet’s before closing (at noon) and get him checked out. They think it’s just hairballs, and just shot him full of kitteh Exlax and fluids and...

I am in love with this garden clipper…

Hands can get quite sore coping with shears and vines and bushes. Got this lovely little Mantis grass and shrub trimmer, qv, which powers up a battery, then handily uses a back and forth action to make good cuts on branches up to a quarter inch. Oh, have we got work...

After the rock setup, under actinics only: This is how the tank is for an hour before main lights come on and an hour after they go off: this is actinic (blue) light, which is high-energy light that penetrates deep. The fish have headed for their nooks in the...

The tank, somewhat later…

Thing’s taller than I am. 105 gallons. Dream tank of a lifetime—but boy! has it been a bear to get set up! I think we are finally where we should have been last year at this time!

Why the ocean is the ocean…

The ocean’s chemistry is really pretty simple: it eats rocks. It supports organisms that, from microcellular up, eat the dissolved rock and eat light of a favored spectrum, which energizes their little cell-parts and makes the eating re-constitute into shells,...

Just resting up…

…working on outline, which is not your A, B, C sort of outline, but a ragtag set of ‘this scene’, coupled with ‘things that need to be explained’ and ‘things that need to happen’ and ‘people in the scene’ so I can...

Bardarbunga IS erupting.

If you have a long plane flight upcoming, heads up. This volcano could affect air travel, particularly in Europe. It’s still erupting under the glacier: this will likely produce catastrophic local flood, once it breaks out. In the meanwhile the Icelandic...

The knee is improving…slowly.

I’ve now gotten to where bed is the only really uncomfortable place to be. There’s something inherently unfair about this, because I’m quite tired and really need sleep. I’ve tried every possible position of pillows, padding, etc, but, alas,...

Bardarbungu webcams….not blowing yet, and may not…

grimsfjall webcams … but they’ve been at condition orange since yesterday and have evacuated the area north of the volcano. This is one of Iceland’s BIG volcanoes. It could alter or ground flights. And it could affect global...